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Chapter Text

The breeze blew so invitingly over my jacket as Jason and I ran on the rooftops. This was a good night. Sirens blared and cars honked in the background. It was the first night we actually felt good enough to start being more active.
My injuries had healed days ago, and Jason’s were better enough.
“Ready?” I twisted and leapt off one of the buildings. It’s the thrill of the fall that excites me.
“Unnnh-“ a force suddenly hits me onto one of the nearby roofs midfall. Too small to be Jason.
Me and whoever it is tumble to the ground. My necklace clinks as we roll.
“Ti- I mean Red Robin! What the hell are you doin?” I stand up and brush myself off.
“I thought you needed help?” Tim asked confusedly.
“No, me and….Red Hood are doing some stuff. I’m fine, I just like to jump off buildings.” I pull him up from the ground.
“So how are you and your boyfriend?”
“We’re, uh,..ok, but he’s not my boyfriend.” He looks away.
“Mmm…” I stretch one of my legs out. “Could’ve fooled me. Did I tell you what Nightwing apparently wanted us to do the other day?”
“No, what?”
“He wanted us to go on a double date with him and Starfire.”
“Pfffftttt..” Tim laughed. “I’d like to see how that goes.”
“It’s not gonna ‘go’ cause we’re not going at all.” I playfully shoved him as Jason joined us.
“Hey, love.” I wave him over.
“What’re you doing on our side of town, victim?”
“Umm, your ‘side’ of town?” Tim scoffs. Sometimes I can’t tell if they get along or wanna kill each other.
“Yes.” Jason towers over him, something I find a little funny.
“Hey, c’mon. “ I pulled on Jay’s jacket lightly. “He’s fine, let’s just go.”
Suddenly we hear gunshots from a few doors down.
I let the fire twist and whirl around me in excitement as we start running to see what’s up. I don’t have all the fun stuff the rest of the family has- grappling hooks, smoke bombs, and all that. It’s not really my thing. But, if I jump too far and break something, it should fix itself.

Jason beats me and Tim down there. He’s a lot faster than us, even in recovery.
It seems to be just a little gang dust up. We put a stop to it anyways. I shove one of the shooters into Tim, who wipes him out with one of those pole-things I don’t like.
Jason is busy taking down three guys hiding behind a car, and he does so effortlessly. I decide on my own prey, two that are fist fighting a little ways from Tim. I encircle them in flames and take my time fighting. Kicking is usually my thing since I don’t have a lot of upper body force or strength. I go for the legs first, knocking the first victim into the other. I dodge a punch from someone and then throw one myself. It lands.
The culprits are all on the ground now, either whining or unable to whine.

“Well, that’s a wrap!” Tim looks very proud of himself as he twirls the pole-thing.
“Not quite.” Jason slams one of them into a wall. “Doesn’t seem like this is your part of town either.” Another jab at Tim.
The assaulter, now the victim struggled for breath. “We…we were sent to this section by our boss.” Jason pressed him harder.
“Why?”
“Our side’s being taken up! Please-“
“‘Taken up’ by who?” Jason didn’t let go.
“I don’t know, really! I don’t-“ Jason tossed him aside.
“Sounds like you got a new investigation, detective.” He shoved by Tim.
“Sorry,” I whispered turning to Tim. “Gotta go. Tell Kon that Akira has a new belt collection out.”
“Akira?” Tim ran his fingers through his hair. He’ll be ok.
I chased down Jason, making fire rings around him.
“So what’s the deal with him?” I lagged slightly behind him, he can run along the roofs better than I can.
“Nothing.” He panted.
“Mmmm, doesn’t seem like nothin.”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Ok.” I finally caught up to him as he slowed. We were at our new apartment. A nicer place, and I put money towards it as well.
We make it back in and change into lounge clothes. I sit on the patio, overlooking the city.
“Do you think the stars are out?” I gaze up, but I see nothing. I think the city air is too polluted for that.
Jason sits down beside me. We can’t afford chairs out here yet. “I think they’re out every night.”
I laugh. “Yeah I guess. I just can’t see em tonight.”
“Doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
“Mmm..” I leaned on him.
“Lydia?” I feel him breathe on me.
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m ready now.”
I’m a little surprised at this but I try to play it off. “Are you sure? We really don’t have to rush…”
“I’m sure.” He looks more hopeful than he has in a while.
“Ok.” I wrap my arm around his. “I’m happy for us then. We need this.”
“I know…I’m just worried I’ll mess up.” He lowered his eyes to his knees.
“You’re not gonna mess up.” I take his sweet face in one hand. “And I don’t care even if you do. I mess up all the time. Nobody’s keeping track.” My eyes flash in the light of a helicopter. “And plus, you’re not getting rid of me that easy.”
“That so?” He picks me up to head inside.
“Jason, no! Those stitches still need to heal up.” I try to hold back a laugh but it’s no use.
“Oh, well- guess you’ll just have to sew me up again.”
“Ughhhh…you’re hopeless.” I throw one arm over my face as I’m being carried. I only pretend to be annoyed. “Can we please pleaseee read something good tonight? What about ‘Frankenstein’?”
Jason ponders this. “Think we can read that in a whole night?”
“Yes. I already did a few weeks ago.”
“We really need to go book shopping, huh?” He sets me down on the bed.
“Yeah. But I think Victor deserves it, y’know? The monster only knew violence in the first place because of Victor. He shouldn’t have been made in the first place.”
“So you don’t think the monster is responsible for his own actions?”

“Mmm…it’s hard to say where the line is.” I inched myself under a blanket. “I think at some point he had to have realized killing was wrong, and then he continued to do it to get back at Victor. Why, what do you think?”
Jason looked at me from his sweet, but sorrowful eyes. “I think the same thing.”

Frankenstein gave me an idea, but I didn’t mention it for now. It’s not logical, yet.

I met up with Bruce and Damian at night. We met at one of the abandoned apartments a little too close to our new apartment.
“Anything new?” I asked. It was very shadowy in here, and Batman loomed in the darkness behind Damian.
“Yes.” Damian showed me a piece of footage on his phone. Fuck.
In the footage, Talons are waiting for a man to arrive to his apartment, then they kill him mercilessly. It doesn’t last very long, but Talons are sometimes messy.
I glanced up at him grimly. “Well, it’s them.”
“Obviously.”
“Do you know the man?” Batman asked.
“I wouldn’t think so.” I look down to the footage again. “Y’all already identified him?”
“Yes. He’s one of the morgue employees. Jake MccNeils.”
“What?” I was very thrown off by this. Why would they attack a morgue employee?
“Wait, zoom in.”
Damian zoomed in on one of the Talons.
“Why are they….?”
“What?”
I glanced up to them both. “They’re wearing ceremonial outfits. Not usually used for normal executions.” I snort out a small amount of smoke.
“What would they usually be used for?”
“Could be three different things, I’m guessing it’s the one where they kill of everybody the chosen victim is associated with, and then kill the actual target last.”
I think Bruce ponders this. “The actual target would be you.”
“Probably. But it’s weird since I don’t personally know the morgue worker.” I paused. “They must have found out about our visits to the morgue.”

“We’ll look into it.” And off they go. I don’t see them again on that night.

I return home to Jay. He’s sitting on the couch when I arrive, and he looks conflicted.
“What’s wrong?” I say as I’m taking off my jacket and boots.
“Is it ok if Roy comes over? He needs help.” Jason doesn’t look up from his place on the couch.
“Uhh…yeah sure. Is everything ok?” I cross over to him and sit down.
“I’m not sure yet-“
We hear more of less of a panicked knock on the door. Jason jumped up and answered it.
Roy doesn’t look good. He’s paler than usual and shaking. He doesn’t look like he’s been taking care of himself at all.
“Hey, buddy.”
“Hey, Jaybird.”
Jason somewhat leads him to the couch. I instantly recognize the tremors as an alcohol withdrawal symptom. Uh oh. I don’t have a lot of experience with this, at all.
“Hey, Lydia.” Roy said tiredly.
“Hey.” I glance at Jason while Roy isn’t looking giving him the ‘what the fuck’ look.
He flicked his hand for us to go to the bedroom.
“We’ll be right back, ok?” Jason patted Roy as I got up. Roy put his head in his hands.

In the bedroom, we whispered back and forth.
“What’s going on with him? It’s alcohol withdrawals right?”
“Yeah, but I haven’t seen him like this in a while.”
“Jay I don’t have a lot of experience with this. I don’t know what to do-“
“I know, but can you try?”
I sigh, a little exasperated. “Yeah, I can try. But is there anything else I should know?”
“He’s in recovery for drugs too.” Jason looked at me like I’ll be able to fix it.
“Shit…” I turn away and scratch my arm. “Jason, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to help..”
He brushed my arm. “I know, but just try.”
My eyes flickered up and down him. “Ok.” I saw a white flash run by us as soon as we opened the door. “Plushy!”

We heard Roy call from the living room. “You guys have a bunny?”
“Yes,” I sighed. “Just ignore him, I’ll catch him in a minute.” I turned to Jason. “I’m gonna get my stuff, just talk to him, I guess.” I started pulling out my bags of medicines. “We can’t let him leave, right?”
“Right.” He left the room to go hang out with Roy, and I joined them a few minutes later.
“Do you like him?” I asked Roy as I set up everything on the coffee table.
“Yeah, he’s a chill guy.” Roy was holding Plushy, who was chewing at the pillows on the couch.
“Mmm, I wouldn’t go that far. He bit me the other day.” I started thinking of all the things to do and not do for somebody going through withdrawals. Seizures are always a potential. And if that happens, we’re screwed and he’s just gonna have to go to an actual hospital. I don’t have enough supplies here if something catastrophic happens.
“I hate to make this awkward, but when was your last-“
“Six days ago. And I think we’re already past the awkward stage.” He gave out a little laugh. Obviously bad jokes are his coping mechanism.
“Any other symptoms besides the shaking?” I started writing down what I knew in one of my notebooks since I don’t have a computer. I have no medical history on this guy at all besides what they’re telling me.
“Throwing up, my head hurts, and my back hurts.” He petted Plushy as he said this.
“Ok.” I wrote everything down and went to the kitchen. I dragged up the trash can beside him and then we continued. They both stared at me for a second. “What? If you’re gonna throw up you don’t need to do it on the couch.” I clicked the pen. “Back’s probably hurting if you’re dehydrated. Shit…I guess we can do a few milligrams of diazepam and some fluids. I’ll get you some Zofran too. I’m just not sure what’s else…” I twisted the cross necklace, my fingers tracing over the little embedded diamonds.
“Do you wanna stay here a few days?” Jason asked Roy.
“Is that ok?” Roy kept petting Plushy, who was basically squashed down into the couch.
Jason looked to me and I nodded subtly as I started opening medication packages. I don’t even know what to start first. I feel like fluids would be a first priority, then other meds on top of that.
“Yeah, it’s ok.”
“Good. Well let’s get this all set up then.” I’ll use a 20G for him, that’s probably fine.
“So how long have you been a nurse for?” Roy asked as I looked for a vein.
“A year-ish.” Found the vein. “I’m not very experienced yet, but I’ll do what I can do.”
“I’ll be the guinea pig then.”
“No,” I connected the IV to the pole. “If I can’t help,then you’re going to a hospital.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“So,” I try to figure out how to phrase this. “The diazepam can be addictive after long periods of time. I think the 2 milligrams should be ok, but it’s up to you.” I looked to Jason for support.

The tremors got a little bit worse, and Jason put a hand on Roy’s shoulder.
“Do you want some water and we can just think about it?”
“Yeah..”
“Ok.” I brought him some water.
“Do you really think it’s ok?” His voice faltered.
“I think so. But if you don’t want it we can try something else.”
“No..let’s do it.”
My eyes flickered to Jason again and back to Roy.
“Ok.”
I get the fluids all set up, and he takes the Zofran and diazepam. Hopefully nothing happens with that but I wrote it all down just in case. Everything needs to be charted, I don’t care if we’re at my apartment.
“Just lemme know if you start feeling weird, ok?”
“Sounds good.” Roy hands Plushy to Jason.
“I’m gonna get you some more blankets and pillows.” I left them and spent a long time in the bedroom so they could talk. I think Jason is disappointed with Roy obviously, but I don’t know any of the background information. I have no idea how long Roy has been dealing with this or how many times he’s been in recovery.
When I come back, both are asleep. I decide I’ll sleep on the floor, too. Can’t take the chance of Roy getting away before we wake up.
I set Plushy back in his cage and then make a nest on the floor by Jason.
“Goodnight,” I whisper to him.

We sleep for as long as we can, but I have work in the morning. Work is very bad the next day. Very bad.
I had to call Jason on the way home from work.
“Hey, can you meet me outside with some clothes? One of my people had bed bugs and I am not takin’ any chances with that shit.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t either.”
I turned the speaker volume up a little.
“So how’s Roy? Was everything ok with those meds from last night?”
“Yeah, he’s just a little on edge. It’s probably good if you get here soon.”
“Yeah I’m like ten minutes out.”
“Oh, hey also- are you alone?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Do you think we should probably put the wines and stuff in the safe?”
“Yeah, good idea.”
“I hate to ask that, but I just know how my other patients have been and they get kinda-“
“No, it’s fine. You’re right.”

I get home and change outside the door while Jason shields me. Nobody’s in the hall, but I’m happy to have him.

“Did he say like what happened for him to relapse like this?” I whispered while I took off my top.
“No, he just said he had a bad moment or something.”
“How long had he been in recovery before this?” I leaned on him for support while I took my shoes off.
“Off and on for months..”
“Jay, I don’t know if we can actually help at this point then. I think this is gonna take more people to deal with..”
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow about it.”
“Ok.”

We go inside to find Roy moved from the couch to the chair. I assume they must have gone out today, but I didn’t wanna ask.
“Hey, Liddie.” He says from the chair.
“Umm, hey.” I smirked at Jason. “New nickname?”
“Yep. Sounded better to me than just ‘Dia’.”
“That’s fair.” I set down my keys and bag.
“So how was your day?” Jason asked as he shut the door behind us.
“Mmm, you want the real answer?”
“Obviously.”
I rolled my eyes playfully. “Mmm; let’s see- some guy thew a cup full of piss at me, somebody told me they could get up: big surprise! they couldn’t and we almost both fell, oh, and one of my psych patients tried clawing their eyes out because they thought the boogie man told them, too.” I poured myself some soda. “But that about sums it up.”

I could feel Roy and Jason glancing at each other from behind me, something I thought was funny. They have no idea what I deal with on a single shift. I didn’t even mention half the stuff, like the girl that OD’d or the family member that tried to sue our entire department because we didn’t have the jello she liked.
I spun around to face them and sipped my soda. “So how bout y’all?”

Chapter Text

“We just hung out.” Ok, that was totally a lie. I could tell by the way Jason blew out air before he said this.
“Ok.” I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket.
“Hola.”
“Hey.” It was Cass.
“Do you have time to talk?”
“Uhh, yeah give me one sec.” I slipped outside onto the patio.
“Ok, now I can.”
“What were things like?”
I’m confused on what she’s talking about.
“Huh?”
“Sorry. I meant in the you-know-what.”
“Ohh….” She wants to talk about the Court.
“I mean it was pretty bad overall, but I learned a lot. Why?”
I heard a small intake of breath on the other side of the line. “You don’t know about me, do you?”
“If you’re talking about backstory and stuff, then no, not really.” I played with one of the strings on my pants as I watched the nightly traffic.
“We’re one in the same.” It’s very hard to tell what Cass is trying to say sometimes.
“What, did you have a psycho dad and grow up in a cult, too? Technically two cults.” I joked.
“Yes. Somewhat.”
“Oh..” well now I feel bad. “Sorry, then.”
“I want to know what you’ve done to move past it.”
“Move past it?” I turned to view Jason and Roy on the couch behind me through the glass. I looked back to the street below. “I don’t think I really have moved past it. I mean I did just try to kill the guy like not even two months ago.”
There was silence on the other side. I decided to continue.
“But with the whole you-know-what, I don’t know. There’s nothing I can do when they decide they’re ready to end me. What I’m doing now is just trying to spend time with people I love. Up until the very end.”
“We’re with you.”
“I know y’all are. But I don’t want anyone to worry about me. The you-know-what is my business, and it’s my duty to face them.” My eyes start filling up all of the sudden. I’ve been pushing these thoughts down the best I can.
“Cass?”
“Yes?”
“Do you promise when it happens nobody will get hurt for me?”
Cass says nothing to this.
“Bye, Lydia.”
“Wait-“
She already hung up.

I went back inside to find only Roy.
“Hey,” I walked by the couch. “Where did Jason go?”
“Just getting ready for bed I think.” Roy scratched his head.
“Oh…” this was a little uncomfortable. “Did you take the morning meds I left?”
“Yeah. I do feel a little better since yesterday.” He said.
“Ok, good.” I sat down in the chair, letting Roy keep the couch. “Still need to stay here a few more days.” I rested my head on one of the smaller pillows.
I could see the tremors were still there.
“Roy, do you have a therapist or anybody else to help you right now in addition to us?”
“No, not right now.” Roy shifted his weight. He must have had one in the past though.
“Ok. I have friends at work that could help.”
“I’m sorry.” He said suddenly.
“No, don’t be sorry.” I smiled a little to show that he’s welcome here. “There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
I put one arm over the pillow. “You’re a good friend to Jason. I meant to tell you when we saved him that time.”

Roy stretched and tried to brush off what I said. “Well, you know me, always saving Jaybird’s ass.”
“I thought it was me always saving your ass.” Jason crossed the room to sit with us.
“We’ll say 50/50 then.”
I watched them amusedly as they went back and forth. Whatever happened with them today, they must have got everything worked out.

The next evening I get a text on a new group chat from Tim. Apparently, he wants all of us to meet so we can all be on the same page about everything going on.
I pull up to the Manor in one of my favorite outfits: baggy cargo pants with my usual belt and chain, and a form-fitting long sleeve top.
“So what’s the deal?” I asked Damian, as he was riding up on Jewel. “Also you’re able to ride that menace already?” Jewel was already prancing as I said this.
“He isn’t a menace. And I don’t know what ‘deal’ you’re referring to.”
I propped my sunglasses up on my head. “He is a menace, just like you.” I took the reins so Damian could dismount.
“Will Soda be staying here, as well?” I thought it was cute Damian hasn’t forgotten about Soda.
“Well if I don’t have to pay a barn fee, then sure he can. If Bruce wants. But I need an arena to work in since we do events. I don’t know how you got this beast to do right without an arena.” I petted Jewel.
“Say no more.” Damian started to lead Jewel to the barn and I followed. I assume the next day I’ll show up to a fully- built indoor arena or something ridiculous.
I check out the barn while Damian untacks Jewel. It’s a very nice barn, just old. I’m sure Soda wouldn’t mind staying here.
I noticed something in one of the last stalls.
“Damian, you have a literal cow in here?”
“Yes.”
I started lovingly petting this recently-discovered cow.
“Why didn’t you tell me like- a long time ago?” I like horses and cows. I saw a bat-shaped spot on the cow, I thought it was very cool.
“She’s a very nice cow.” I told Damian happily.

We headed inside to the Cave. Upon arrival, I see that Tim has some elaborate drawing board pulled up to near the bar computer. Everybody else is piled in various spots around it, including Dick and Barbara.
“Where’s Red?” He asked when he saw Damian and I approach.
“Red is on his way,” I laughed a little. “You can’t both be called ‘Red’.”
“Well tell him to give me the title then.”
I cross my legs and sit on the floor. “You can argue with him about it yourself when he gets here.”
“I’ve arrived.” Jason shows up in full Red Hood attire. Half of us are in going-out clothes, and half are in our regular clothes. Off to a great start.
I fluff some of my hair out, making sure the necklace isn’t caught in any of it.
“Hey, Steph.” Stephanie is leaning against one of the tables near the drawing board.
“Hey, girly.”

“Ok, is everybody here?” Tim has a literal clipboard. Jesus.
“Looks like it.”
“Yes.”
“Ok. I called the meeting so we can go over evidence for multiple cases.” He pointed to the drawing board.
“Case one: the reopening of the Gilded Lambs case, Case two: the Court investigation, and Case three: catching Slade and Scarecrow. Case four: figuring out why gang territory lines are changing so rapidly.”

Jason interrupted. “Wait, I thought you were supposed to be investigating the gang thing?”
“Todd is correct,” Damian agreed. “For once..”
Tim tried to bring the conversation back to his main points. “Yeah, that’s just what I’m about to discuss. But we need to go step by step. We’re starting with case one.”
I chimed in. “Nobody knows about case one except for Bruce and Damian. I haven’t had any updates since the first incident.” I twirl my necklace.
“Weren’t you the cause of the ‘first’ incident?” Damian turns to me.
“Technically yes.”
“Ok, ok- back on track.” Tim waves his arms frustratedly. “So, as I was saying- case one. Edward Blood has been proven to be alive, active whereabouts unknown. Which brings me to case three: how Slade is working with Blood-“
“Wait, I thought we were going in order with the cases?” Steph raised her hand.

“Ok. Ok, fine.” Tim regathered himself. “So case one and three are connected. Case two, the Court case, is still an active investigation as well. Somehow, Slade knew about Lydia’s ties to the Court, implying that cases one through three are interconnected.”
“Wait, Lydia, you have ties to the Court?” Duke asked.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“We’ll get into all that in a minute. Anyways, case four, the last case, needs to be picked up by somebody.”
“Pffft, so you just brought us all here to do the boring case for you.” Jason crossed his arms disapprovingly.
We all looked back to Tim.
“No, that’s not what I was saying.” Tim sighed. “I’m taking on case four, but somebody else needs to take the lead for the other ones.”
“Lydia, will you handle the Slade/Scarecrow case with Dick?”
My eyebrows raised and lowered. “Why would I be responsible for the Slade/Scarecrow case? I need to be involved with case one.”
“Bruce says no to having you involved in case one. He thinks it’s too much of a liability.” Tim said awkwardly.
“Fair enough,” I put my arms out to lean on behind me. “But I’m not dealing with Slade again. Time for somebody else to get impaled.”
“Wait, you got impaled?” Somebody asked, horrified.
Tim intervenes. “Ok, well you can handle the Court case then. But somebody else has to do it with you. We don’t know how dangerous they are yet.”
“They’re the most dangerous ones out of all of it.”
“Ok, well let’s review the cases and then we can decide.” Tim started clicking around on the bat computer.
“Dude, you made a literal slideshow?” Duke sounds depressed at this.
“Yes, and we have to get through all of it.”
Everybody erupts into whining and groaning. Steph and I roll our eyes at each other.

“Ok, so what do we know about case one?” Tim clicks a button, revealing a literal PowerPoint. This is what I imagine grade school to be like.
Nobody answers Tim, so he launches straight into the presentation. “Ok, exactly two months ago, we had the unsolved fire cases. That was followed by our introduction of the Alchemist, or Lydia.” He glanced at me briefly. “So, once we put the pieces together and realized that Lydia was not, in fact, the serial arsonist- we realized with her help that it was actually the Lambs. I don’t know if anybody remembers, but the Lambs are a southern cult based on a lot of ritual-type stuff.” Tim droned on and on.
Stephanie came to sit beside me and I laid my head in her lap. “Please end it now.” I whined.

Back to Tim. “So, after Edward Blood was thought to be dead, we ended up finding evidence of him being alive through a tapestry that was left in Lydia’s room.” He pulls a now-encased tapestry from off one of the tables.
“What does the lamb mean?” Damian glared at the tapestry.
“It’s a symbol of innocence.” I answered. “The gold cuffs on its legs are supposed to symbolize the sins of men.”
“Makes no sense.” I muttered to Steph.
“Ok, so where does that bring us?” Tim clicked another slide. “To the Slade/Scarecrow incident. We believe that Slade was hired by Blood to kill Lydia.”
“And how do we know that?” It was Barbara.
“Well, he said he was hired by the Court, which was a total lie.” I called across to her. “But that means he knows about the Court, somehow.”

“Well obviously your father informed him.” Damian acted like I was the dumbest animal he’s ever heard of.
“Well yeah, no shit.” I said. “But why would my dad know about the Court to begin with? He’s not even from around here.”
“You’re not either.”
“Well, yeah, but I’m saying that somebody not from Gotham wouldn’t know about the Court.”
“Ok, back on track.” Tim was looking back and forth at the clipboard, I’m assuming they were his notes. “So Slade and Scarecrow- why would they kidnap all of us, right? The whole thing was obviously a ploy to get at Batman.”
“Well why has nobody been able to find them so far?” Steph asked, her eyes narrowed at Tim.
“We’ve been trying,” Tim said slowly. “But we literally cannot find them on the map. They must have gone underground.”
“What about case four?” Dick looked the most interested at this one.
“So, with case four- this one is very new. We just found out about it a few nights ago.” He clicked a few more slides to reach the ‘Case 4’ one. “We’re not sure why all the gang territories are shifting so much. The member we talked to said that his boss was making them.”
“And you didn’t make him elaborate?” Damian looked pissed at this whole thing.
“He said all he was gonna say.” Jason said from behind all of us.
“I could have made him say more.” Damian turned away from Jason, back to Tim.
“So what’s the course of action?” Cass was crouched in the corner a little behind Stephanie and I.
“The course of action,” Tim started. “Is for case one, Damian and Bruce will continue to investigate. If anyone sees anything relating to that case, they can go to them.” He moved to beside the table.
“For case two- Lydia, Dick, and-
“No, wait, wait, wait-“ I interrupted him. “We can’t just easily take down the Court with a few people. It’s gonna be at least Batman level, if not then League level. And we’ll never get rid of it completely. Almost every rich person I Gotham is involved.” I get up off Stephanie. “Our best bet is to try and make a deal with them to leave us alone.”
“Well, they already have proven their violence with that last killing of the morgue worked.” Tim said.
“What?” Barbara must have not known about a lot of this.
“Yeah, the Court killed some random morgue guy. I don’t know what he could have even done wrong.”
“But still,” I turned to face Tim. “What the Court wants, they get. It’s gonna be better to just make a deal.”
“If that’s even possible.” I said quietly.
“Ok, what about this-“ Tim sat down in one of the spin-y chairs. “We could save case two for last since cases one and three are already ongoing.”
“Well, that’s not gonna work because case two is way more important and urgent than case four.” I put in.
“True.” Damian said. “But Father and I have case one under control.”
“Well what does that mean?” I said sternly. “Do you even have any updates with case one?”
“Not any that we’re willing to share with you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him but said nothing.
“Ok, ok, so what’s the plan for everything else?” Dick seemed the most hopeful out of all of us to start tackling all the cases.
“Ok,” Tim started again, looking down at his notes. “So case one is still Bruce and Damian. Case two we’re gonna sit on for now, and case three can be you, Barbara, and Duke or Stephanie. Case four will be myself and Cass.”
“Wait, then where would me and Jason come in?” I questioned.
“Your options are pretty much case three or four.”
I tilted my head back to Jason, looking at him almost upside down.
“Rematch with Slade?”
“Sounds like it.”
“Ok then, we’ll do case three.” I subconsciously covered the area I was stabbed in. “But I’m not sword fighting that asshole again.”
Tim set his clipboard down in a different spot. “Ok. But-“ he said sharply. “Before anybody goes, we all have to agree we’ll give each other updates if we find anything new.”
“Ok.”
“Fair enough.”
“Deal.”

Everyone started dispersing out of the bat Cave. I had assumed that Dick was gonna be the lead investigator for case three. I thought he was always super busy in Blüdhaven, but I guess he found the time to help us out over here.

While I was out visiting Soda, I got a text from Dick in yet another group chat named ‘Case 3 team’.

Hey guys, training starts tomorrow at 8:00 am.

Training?

Yep :)

Great. I try to find the positive side. I do like to train sometimes. Now that I know I won’t be actually hurt. I won’t get into too much detail, but the Court’s training is very ruthless.
I decided to try Soda out with some split reins. I talked to the barn owners, and Soda is getting transferred to the Manor in a few days. Already got the trailer set up and everything. It’s a very nice evening to be out riding. We work on some patterns for a little bit and then I sit and read with him a while. I don’t want Soda to think I forgot about him, when I’ve been busy with so much lately.

Chapter Text

We got home to find…no Roy.
“Lydia-“ Jason pointed to a note.

Thanks for everything- Roy

“Oh, no.” I put my hands over my head. He really doesn’t need to be out. From everything I’ve heard, he’s high risk for almost everything.
“You wanna go catch him?”
“Do you think we should?” Jason looked to me for guidance.
“Yeah. I really, really don’t think it’s good for him to out right now.”

We suited up and left during the night. It was pouring, but we tracked Roy to Chinatown. He was wandering pretty aimlessly through the alleyways. I wondered if he had already found drugs again, but I didn’t bring this up to Jason.
“Do you really wanna do this?” Jason asked as we hid behind one of the building corners. The lights and lanterns of Chinatown reflected off us. The neon signs made vibrant outlines on our clothes.
“I wanna do it for you.” I said. “He’s your friend. And he’s a good person, I can tell.”
“He is.” Jason agreed. “I just don’t want to lose him.”
“I know.”
I got the rope ready. I had it tied through my belt loops since it’s hard for me to carry a bunch of stuff. And it’s raining, meaning it will take a lot more effort from me to produce fire.
“Roy,” Jason appeared in front of Roy while I went behind him a short distance. We’re gonna try the nice way first. Roy doesn’t have any of his weapons, but I don’t know his skill level when it comes to fighting. He could be a karate master or something, for all I know.
Water drips down my mask as Jason tries to talk him into coming back.
“Please come home. We can help.”
“I need to figure this out for myself. But I do appreciate all the help, really do.” Roy backs away from Jason a little. I’m waiting for some kind of signal before I react.
“Roy, please. You’re my friend…” Jason looks down at the ground and I hear him lower his voice. “You’re my best friend.”
“I know, Jaybird. You’re my best friend too. Always have been. But I don’t want to bother anyone else, it’s my fault for messing up. I gotta own it.” Roy tries to brush past Jason, but Jason stops him.
I nod as a question to ask if we’re going through with this. Jason approved.
I block both ways down the alleys with flames and rush at Roy. I’m not sure if his plan is to fight or what.
I take out one of my darts as he attempts to dodge, but I need a better target than half his leg. I step onto his back as he tries to duck under Jason, nearly flattening him to the ground. Kicking off the wall and turning, I shove the dart into his arm while Jason tackles him. Easy enough. But it was two against one, so I’ll give him that.
Roy splashes into a puddle in the alley. I feel bad, this is probably traumatic for both of them. It might be a good thing I don’t know him that well.
I take the rope from my belt and tie him one of the many ways I know how. I feel like hog-tying would be too hard on his joints, and too hard for us to get him back to the apartment.
“Are you ok?” I touch Jason’s arm before we head back.
“I’m fine, let’s just get him home.”
“Alright.” I pick up his legs and Jason picks up the rest of him. Not too heavy, but I couldn’t have done it by myself. Plus, it’s a long way back to the apartment.

We finally get back and place Roy back on the couch. I unzip and start drying my hair off. My makeup has smudged a little in the fight. “I don’t know what we’re gonna do. Has he ever been like
this before?”

Jason is busy pacing back and forth in the living room, not taking his eyes off Roy.
“Jay, c’mere baby.” I wave for him to sit with me. “We’ll figure this out.”
“I..I’m worried he took something again.” Jason was referring to drugs, but another issue is I don’t know which drugs, or how much Roy usually takes.
“Ok, well if you want we can drug test him, but I think maybe we should wait and see if he’ll be honest first.”
“Yeah..yeah, ok.”
I hug around him. “Why don’t you go get us some food and I’ll watch him?”
Jason reluctantly agrees and leaves to go get us some pizza.

Ok, time to be aggressive. I slapped Roy awake pretty hard.
“What the hell-“
“You need to get a fuckin’ grip.” I get in his face so we’re inches apart. “Do you know how Jay’s mom died? She overdosed! And you know why he never talks to me about it? Because it fucking’ broke him! Along with everything else that he’s had to deal with in his life!” I shove Roy a little to get my point across. “What he needs is a good, stable friend in his life, and you’re not being that right now.” I circle around him in frustration. I learned this from the Court. “I don’t know what kind of shit you’ve been through, or how it led you here, but you’re gonna have to get it together for him.”
“Where is he..?”
“He’s out. That’s not the point, me and you are talking now.” I flicker the flames around us, careful not to touch anything with them.
I lower myself to his gaze again. This time I talk slower so he understands fully. “You’re gonna get it together hella fast, or you’re gonna have me to deal with. Jason needs you and you are going to be there for him.” I enunciate the ‘are going’ part, because it’s not up for debate.
“You’re not going to run, and you’re not gonna mess up again. Next time, I’ll start breaking things.” My eyes flicker in the flame’s light.
“Not a word of this gets to Jason, do you understand?”
“Yes.” I see fear in his eyes, indicating that I am successful. Nothing makes a more motivated man, than a scared man.
I exhale smoke in his face as a final threat. “You can do this, and you will. For him, if not yourself.”
I raise myself to a standing position and turn away, taking the flames with me. “I’m going to get a shower. Jason is bringing pizza, you should eat.”

Now you might say, ‘Lydia, did you have to be so hard with him?’ Or ‘Lydia, you’re a nurse, isn’t you job to be compassionate no matter what?’ And my answer to both would be yes. The way I see it, addicts have a hard time being motivated to get better. I gave him motivation.
And in my short career, I have seen far too many overdoses and failed recoveries. Like I said before, I don’t have much experience with helping people successfully recover. It’s Gotham, that’s not really a thing people do. But if there’s one thing I won’t allow- it’s Jason losing yet another person he cares about.
I spend a lot of time in the shower, reviewing my tattoos and doing normal girl things. I take extra time painting my nails and things like that, so Jason and Roy can talk.
I turn on one of our Moroccan lamps and make my appearance in the kitchen to get pizza.

“…but we’ll figure this out.”
“Ok. Thanks, buddy.”
Jason unties him and I bring us pizza.
Roy doesn’t speak to me the whole time we’re eating. I think Jason suspect something’s up.
“Are you good, now?” My eyelashes flutter as I try to ask Roy this nicely.
“Ye-yes. I think so.”
“Good.” I set my drink down. I see that the tremors are back. “I have more meds if you need em.”
“Ok.”

As Jason and I bed down for the night, he tries to start up a conversation.
“Hey, do you think he’s ok? I can’t tell if he took anything or not.” Jason stares up at the ceiling, pondering.
“I think he will be ok, if he’s not now. I don’t think he took anything though, honestly.” I arched my neck into the pillow and curled around him.
“Do you think this was the right thing to do?” Jason continued staring at the ceiling.
“I still think so. At least if he stays here, we can take turns supervising him for a while. I think a few days should be enough, but if not then he can stay for however long he needs.”
“Ok.” He blinked softly, as if thinking this over.
“We have training at Bruce’s tomorrow, do you wanna go or do you want me to?”
“You can go, I’ll stay with him another day.”
“Ok. I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I plunge myself into darkness, wondering if this truly was the right thing to do or not.

In the daylight hours, I leave them both to head to the Manor.
Dick is already stretching and ready to go. The rest of us normal people: me, Stephanie, Duke, and Barbara- are waiting around drearily, trying to wake up.
Alfred brought us some tea and coffee, but I really don’t like either.

Dick and Duke practice first. I sit on the ground by Stephanie while Barbara supervises. Sadly, I don’t think she can practice with us, but it’s good she’s here to support anyways. She’s a strong woman. I heard of what she went through.
“Don’t let him get behind you!” Stephanie yells at Duke. Too late. Dick already has gotten Duke on the ground.
“And that’s three for three!” Dick looks pleased with himself, as if he’s not a 27-year-old man taking down a 16-year-old.
“Who’s next?”
“Not it!” Stephanie and I exclaim at the same time.
I sighed. “Ok, guess I’ll take one for the team.” I glanced back at her sadly as I’m getting up. “Like a good teammate.”
She rolled her eyes playfully.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” I shuffled sadly to the padded floor that they use to train on. There’s no way I can beat him without my abilities, but I’m sure as hell gonna try.
“Nervous?” Dick likes to have a lot of dialogue during fights. I don’t.
“Not yet.” I shift my weight to each foot and start to circle. This is a traditional way of training in the Court. Each member circles, and then it’s tradition for the one who offered the training to wait for the accepting one to attack.
It’s hard for me to find his weak points, he seems to have almost none. The legs definitely aren’t it, and the top half even less so…
I decide to go for something more unconventional- one arm.
I let him make a move first, then duck around those stupid sticks I hate. I get hit in the side with one, but lightly enough. That’s fine. I continue to circle, bending my body toward the ground. I make a small jump toward him and tighten myself around the one arm with my legs.
Now comes the difficult part. I try to lock my arms around his neck and flip us, and it does partially work.
My memory flashes to the Court in this moment. One trainee failed this move, and they made the victor…the trainee was eaten. And I will say no more about that. I will not release myself from his neck, no matter what.
We crumple to the ground-with me on the ground, and Dick halfway on the ground, halfway on me. This part takes a lot of core strength, especially if the victim thrashes a lot.
I don’t let go until I hear gasping.
“Do you give up?”
He taps out.
I unlock my legs and arms. He gets up instantly and I sidle out from beside him. In other circumstances, one of us would be killed or beaten by everyone else in the room.
“Are you ok?”
He breathes in for a few more seconds. “Yeah. That was good.”
“Thanks, I have issues with losing first.” I didn’t elaborate any further to this, and no one asked.
I beat Stephanie and- barely, Duke. But I also let them win a few as well. I thought with my next round I should go a little lighter on them, but that’s the opposite of what I was taught. I only allow Jason to win because we have a connection. It’s just hard not to win and think I’m not gonna die right afterwards.
We practice for hours longer, until all of us are drenched in sweat.
Some of us drink, and some of us lay out. I’m one of the ones to lay out. I wipe sweat off my face and feel my stomach rise and fall.
Dick walks in front of me. “You let them win.”
I roll over to my side and get up. “Yeah, so?”
“So that won’t help anyone train better.”
“You let me win the first time. I know you were holding back.”
Dick doesn’t address this, so I know I’m right.
“The point of training is for all of us to try our best.”
I sighed annoyedly. “If I ‘tried my best’, everybody in here would be dead.” I lowered my gaze to the ground. “You’ve seen it..”
“I have…but it won’t happen again.”
He helps me up, but I’m not convinced.
“Maybe not. But still…”
Damian enters the cave. “Your horse has arrived.”
“Oh! He’s here already?”
Everybody looks at Damian and I in confusion.
“We ride horses together, it’s fine.”
I asked Damian about the arena as I went up the steps.
“Father is already building it. He says it should be done next week.”
“Oh..ok, perfect.” I wasn’t sure they actually would do it.
I met with Soda on the lawn of the Manor.
Apparently, they had already paid someone to drop him off. So much for me renting the trailer myself. I had already brought all of Soda’s stuff here, so all that was left was him.
He immediately starts to eat the yard grass.
“Soda, no-no.” I jerk the lead rope up, leading him to the barn. “We can’t eat this grass, this is the fancy grass.” Soda, frankly doesn’t care. But I get him to the barn and it seems like he likes it.
“Do you think he’s enjoying himself?” Damian asked me while he fed Jewel.
“I think so. I would be happy if I got to live in a mansion and eat all day, too.” I put Soda in his stall across from Jewel. The bro-mance has already started. If you know anything about geldings, you’ll know they’re almost always gay. I’m fine with that, as long as they act right while we’re riding.
Soda and Jewel continue to whinny and snort at each other as Damian and I head out. It’s been a good day, I think. A very successful day, although there were some minor bumps.

Chapter Text

Today, I’ve decided to visit one of Gotham’s cathedrals. I put in some headphones and blast ‘Inbred’ while I walk up to the church. I hate coming here, but I want to see something.

I sit in one of the back pews. I’m alone here. I hold my cross necklace as I try.

Dear Great Being, please hear me and let me know my family is ok. I want them to know they are loved and missed. Tell Paul…tell Paul that when I see him again we can play in the field.

I close my eyes and listen for something. Feel for something. Anything. I receive nothing in return. Only a silent cathedral, with me in it.

I gaze up to the stained glass through my black veil. I don’t want to be seen here, if that’s why you’re asking about the veil.
But the stained glass is very lovely. I study it for a long time. Why is it that only cathedrals have pretty stained glass like this?

I try one last time.

Great Being, give me some guidance. I need a sign that what I’m doing is right.

I hear nothing back. Y’know, people always claim that God talks to them personally, or such things like that. I don’t really believe that, not anymore. The Great Being doesn’t talk to me. I only talk to them when I have no one else to talk to. I like to believe they listen, but I can’t be sure.

I leave the pew and go to one of the cathedral’s bathrooms for a moment. I need to cry, and I don’t want to do it at home. Jason doesn’t need to see that anymore.
I stare at myself in the mirror. I’m not an ugly woman, by any means. I used to think that a long time ago, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that’s not true. I’ll describe myself to you, so you understand. My hair is a plain, wavy type of brown, but my eyebrows are very symmetrical and nice, and my eyelashes are longer than average. My freckles I do occasionally try to cover with makeup, but I haven’t been as of lately. And my eyes are a murky, swamp water kind of greenish gray. Not an attractive color, but I do like them. I like my eyes due to the fact it makes me appear more unassuming maybe, but they can easily make me the fierce woman that I am on the inside. I’m not skinny, but lean. I like my muscles, I worked hard to get them. I suffered to get them.
Here in the bathroom though, I cry. I lift my veil up so the tears will spill into the sink without making too much of a mess. The veil gets caught on one of my earrings made from rattlesnake vertebra, ripping the veil a little.

I cry for what I know will happen. I will not be alive to be with Jason forever. I won’t be alive to see everyone else live out their dreams like they deserve.
All I wanted was a happy life, a fulfilling life. That’s what being a nurse is to me. It’s some sense of normalcy, and I do love it no matter how horrible it is to me.
Some strands of hair fall in my face, I don’t even bother wiping them away.
Suddenly, I get a call.
“Hello?” I choked out.
“Hey, Lydia is everything ok? Me and Roy are gonna be home later.”
“Oh. Ok good.” I sniffed.
“Lydia?”
“Yeah? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just stubbed my toe.”
“Ok.” Jason didn’t sound convinced. “See you when we get home?”
“Yep. Bye, love.” I said quickly and hung up.
I glanced back at my reflection. The eyeliner and mascara was dripping now. You know how I said I wasn’t ugly? I changed my mind. Sometimes I am, and it’s hard to know when I am or not.

Goodbye, Great Being. I hope I will see you soon. If not, then this is the end.

When I got home I set up a lot of candles and incense. I didn’t know what else to do. Roy better be behaving himself. It sounds like he hasn’t told Jason about our discussion, so that’s good. Stephanie called.
“Hey, Lydia!”
“Heyyy.” I lit all the incense and candles at once, making a huge white flash in the apartment. “What’s up?”
“Mmm, not much. I kinda just wanted to talk about random stuff.”
“Fair enough.” I went to go get some ice cream from the fridge, I haven’t had dinner yet. “You wanna go see that horror movie Friday?”

We did talk about random stuff, and half of it was gossip.
“So did you hear about the whole thing with Zatanna?”
“No,” I eat some ice cream. “But she gives me bi panic so bad, bro.”
Stephanie cackled on the other line and I heard the door start unlocking.
“Oopsie, gotta go- the boys are home.”
I flopped my legs over the couch and somehow choked on the ice cream, wow.
“The boys? Are y’all doing weird stuff over there-“
I hung up. God, now she thinks we’re over here having orgies or something. If somebody asks, I hope I can try to brush it off. I didn’t mean for it to slip that there’s more than one guy staying here.
“Hey. Ice cream for dinner?” Jason takes off his jacket.
“Hey, and yes.” I get up to put the remains of it away.
“What’s the deal with all the candles?” Roy looks around, I think trying to be normal. I accept this, I’m assuming it’s a verbal tribute.
“I just needed to unwind.” I turn on some TV-girl and it plays softly in the background. The song is an instrumental ‘cigarettes out the window’.
I tilt myself toward Jason. “So, y’know how we’re supposed to be helping with case three?”
“I guess. Not like we had much of a choice.”
“Mm..yeah. But still, I got a lot of new information.” I spread out my notes, and some pictures from earlier.
“So, with case three- Slade and Scarecrow are still missing, right? Well I got information that one of Scarecrow’s old labs on the west side seems to be active again.” My eyes flashed excitedly as I told them this. I didn’t care if they listened or not. Jason did. He always listens.
“I think this time we could probably take them down ourselves, but I feel like it’s respectful to let the rest of the team know before we make a move.”
“I don’t see who made Dick the automatic leader.” Jay sighed frustratedly. “Seems like it should be us since we’re the ones that had the run-in with Slade.”
“Yeah. I don’t see why we couldn’t lead.”
I tried to extend a verbal tribute to Roy. “What do you think, Roy?” I held his gaze, something that isn’t usually done unless you’re trying to establish dominance.
“Ehhh, I don’t know…” Roy stretched, seeming nonchalant. “Sounds more of a Bat thing. And we already had to deal with him the first time, I think they should take a turn.”
“I think so, too.” My gaze changes to Jason again. “Maybe we shouldn’t lead, that way somebody else can be the responsible one.”
I see a flicker of a smile. We all discuss the plan a little more, and then Jason and I retire to the bedroom.

I wait for him on the bed. I let my jaw fall a little when he comes out of the bathroom. He’s a stunning man, really and truly.
“Come lay down.” I pat the bed for him to come sit. I admire him as much as I can, but he looks tired.
“I’ve just been..so tired lately.” There it is.
“I know,” I take his hand. “I’m sorry I haven’t been paying as much attention to you lately- I’ve just been so overwhelmed with everything.”
He looked down at me. “You didn’t stub your toe earlier.”
“No, I didn’t.” Smoke billows seductively around us. “Why don’t you lay down?”
He obeys instantly. He always does, it’s one of the many things I like about him.
I sit on my knees beside him.
I push his side for him to turn over onto this stomach. “Roll over.”

“Mmm, looks like a lot of knots here.” I start pushing my fingers deep into the shoulder muscles, and in fact there are a lot of knots.

“I went to a cathedral today.”
“I know.” He said softly.
“How did you-“
“You’re not as hard to track as you think you are.”
I tried to hide a smile. “Don’t stalk me, I’m an adult and I don’t stalk you like that.” I pushed my thumbs further into one of the muscles, making him grunt.
“Fine. But what were you doing there?”
“Just processing things. You know I won’t be here forever.”
“Don’t say that.” He said sharply.
“It’s true. And I don’t want you to be upset when I have to go.”
“What do you mean ‘when you have to go’?” He was starting to get upset, which I was trying to avoid.
“The Court, Jay. You can’t just get away from the Court. But I would never want to leave if I didn’t have to. I’m just hoping I can work something out with them.” My voice broke a little at the end. I don’t know how well I’m covering up my panic.
He suddenly jumped on me and pushed me down into the bed. I gasped a little, I didn’t expect him to do that.
“Jay?”
“Listen to me.” His eyes blazed into mine.
“I’m listening.” There was no fear in my eyes, I trust him.
“No one is taking you from me.”
“Ok.” There was nothing else I could say. He’s obviously made us his mind.
I wormed my hand away from his grasp and traced over his fingers, making him ease up.

We went to bed in silence, but the next day I decided to start being a lot more aggressive with our investigation. Maybe I’ll have a better chance if we can get rid of Slade and Scarecrow first.
I decide not to alarm the rest of the team, for now. And besides, I’ve been working alone for quite a while, anyways.
I’ve been stalking this guy for a few hours, it’s one of Scarecrow’s associates. His name is Barry Willoughby. I know a lot about him, and I intent to use that for my benefit.
I creep up behind him as he makes his way toward the lab on the west side. Well, the general area of it. I’m not exactly sure where it is, but I intend to find out today.
I quickly knee him in the back and dart him. He barely makes a noise as he falls. He’s a reasonably big guy, but I think I can move him.
Ok, now time for the secondary location. His own apartment.
Luckily, I still have the voice moderator in the mask.
“Get up.” I have set Willoughby in the corner of his own bedroom, and now I am fiddling with some things of his. I’m sure there’s drugs in this house.
“Huh? Wha-“
“Shut up.” I give him a quick hit so he knows I’m not messing around. “Listen to my requests.”
I let my flames twist and play around the room. They look so graceful, but so dangerous, yes. I keep my breathing steady, so the flames last longer.
“First, I want the exact location of the lab. You know what I’m talking about.”
“I-“
“I asked you to be quiet.” I sent a flame flickering near his hand, to which he screamed.
I continued. “Next, I want the exact location of Slade.” I stood before him. “And lastly, I want you to explain to me how to get into the lab. A step by step, if you don’t mind.”
He tries his luck to weasel out of this. “Look man, I don’t know all that, I only know-“
“Does your family know you’re a rapist?” I allowed the flames to ripple around us. “I believe it was December 13th, about three years ago.” I paused for effect. “You were married at that time, yes? And already had your girl.”
Willoughby looked flabbergasted I knew about all that.
“Oh, yes; you see, I know about this, but I also know about the cop that helped you cover it up.” I slowly looked down at him. “I already took care of him.” This was a lie, but it was the only thing I could think of in the moment. The rapist thing was not a lie.
“Damnit-ok, ok.” He sounded defeated. Good.
“The lab is on the far side of West Avenue, going out of the city. And I don’t know where Slade is-“ I reared to hit him again.
“But, but, I do know where Scarecrow is. He goes between that lab and the asylum to visit somebody, but I don’t know who.” He pleaded. Oh, so that’s where Slade is.
“What about the last thing?” I lowered my arm.
“You got a pen?”

I left Willoughby’s dingy apartment happily with my new directions on how to break into the lab. Willoughby is fine, as of now. I left him tied up in his own bedroom, and darted him for good measure.

I texted the group chat.
Meetup?

Yeah, sure.
Ok.
What for?

I have new information. Bruce’s at 1900?

Ok.

Alright, well that works out perfect. I arrive at Bruce’s shortly before 1900, with my information.

Dick and Barbara were already there, but we waited for Stephanie and Duke to show up a few minutes later.
“So what was it you wanted to show us?” Stephanie took off her hoodie and started drying off from the rain.
“I got the locations of Scarecrow and Slade, plus how to get in the lab.” I set my map and instructions on one of the tables.
“Wait, how did you get all that so fast?” Dick asked from his place a few feet away.
“That’s not relevant,” I said shortly. “The point is I got it, and it’s the right information. My source says the lab is on West Avenue on the far side, and that Scarecrow has been going from there to the asylum. So I’m willing to bet money that’s where Slade is camping out.” I flicked the paper on the table closer to them. “That’s the map on how we’re gonna get in the lab.”

“Who was the source? And also, where’s Jason?” Barbara didn’t acknowledge my map that I was proud to get.
“He couldn’t come, he’s out right now.” I said dismissively. Jason is out a lot with Roy, I feel like it’s not my place to ask what they’re going. As long as Roy is getting it together, that’s all I care about.
“Does he know about the updates?” Duke side-eyed Stephanie. I bet she told him about our call.
“Yeah he knows.” I texted him about it earlier, but I assumed him and Roy were busy.
“Well, we can’t raid the place tonight, since we’re not ready.” Dick glanced to Barbara. I sensed some underlying tones there, but I couldn’t be sure of what.
“What about tomorrow night?” Steph asked. “I don’t have anything going on.”
I shifted my coat. “Me either.”
“Ok, then let’s meet up tomorrow. West avenue.” Dick said this as if he’s waiting for us to leave. Or at least, for me to leave.
“Ok.” I pointed at the map as I started to walk away. “Just don’t lose that.”

I got home to find a bunch of papers and maps taped up on the floor of the living room. Half of the maps are of the sewers, and half the papers are about the upper class of Gotham. I recognize a few to be Court members. There are strings going all around the papers, weaving back and forth to connected seemingly unrelated things.

“What’s all this?” I gestured to the floor as Jason and Roy come in from the patio.
“It’s how we’re gonna take down the Court ,” Jason started, crouching down to the papers. “You said you could try to make a deal with them, right?”
I looked at him, distraught. “Yes, but we can’t handle this by ourselves. I think it’s best if we leave this one alone-“
“No, this is more important right now.”
“Jason,” I was starting to get annoyed. “This is a bad idea. We’re all gonna get killed if we try to do this by ourselves.” I glared at him more than I intended to. “They’re always listening. I’m surprised they even let us get this far…” I twisted my necklace back and forth, glaring from Jason to Roy. Roy was not being a huge help, but I can’t blame him. This isn’t his problem.
“I don’t think we should be even talking about them here.” I said finally. “We need to wait on this and get Batman involved.”
“Why does he need to be involved in everything?” Jason asked angrily. I saw Roy step back a little.
“Because we can’t do this by ourselves or we’re all gonna fuckin’ die!”
Suddenly, something got thrown through the window to the patio. It shattered the glass all over us and the papers on the ground.
It’s a brick-with a neat, little gold envelope tied to it. “I told you.” I whispered angrily back at them both. I went to pick up the brick and open the envelope.

On the note read:
‘Speak not a whispered word of them, or they’ll send the Talon for your head’

It’s a part of the old rhyme about the Court. We’re so screwed. They know. They’ve been watching us the whole time, just like I thought. We’re all dead now.

“We’re not staying here tonight.”
“Lydia, wait-“ it was Roy.
“No,” I spun around to them. “We’re leaving. Now.” I flicked flames to burn all the papers and maps away onto the carpet. We didn’t need all that anyways, we have me.
I pack a quick bag and grab Plushy.
“We don’t need to get him involved.” Jason repeated from the door to the bedroom. I’m over it.
“Nobody should be involved at all but me, yet here we are.” I slung a bag over my shoulder aggressively.
“I should have never told you about this.” I pet Plushy and set him in his carrier. I’m gonna have to make some decisions about where to leave him.
“Lydia.” He grabs the back of my arm, stopping me in my tracks.
“What?” I hissed out.
“I’m sorry.” He sounded broken.
I breathed out.
“It’s ok.” I tried to speak in a softer tone, but it’s hard. “You did nothing wrong. You’re just trying to help.”
He hugs me from behind, I feel his body tower over mine. Heat radiates from my body, absorbing into his.
I’ll allow it; this time. But, this might be the last time. In this moment, I am here with the one I love. Whether it be the last time or not. I am here.

Chapter Text

We found a hotel about an hour away. It wouldn’t do any good, but I was hoping they would feel a little safer.
The car ride over had given us all a little time to think.
“Roy,” I stopped him before he left to go to his room’s floor. “Take him.” I held out Plushy in his carrier.
“I-I can’t-“ Roy looked from me to Jason, as if Jason would be deciding for me.
“Yes you can.” I shove the carrier into his arms despite his protests. “Just for a little while.” I didn’t expect to come back. But Plushy would be good for him, I think. I know he would be fed and loved. And Damian could have Soda if it came down to it.
I heard Jason and Roy whispering as I turned away, but I didn’t pay attention to what they said. It’s not important now.

They stayed outside for some time and Jason finally came in and shut the door.
“Jay, c’mere.” I tried to hold everything in. I have to be strong for everyone here, but especially him.
“Me and Roy think we should all move to one of our safe houses for a while.” He says as he sits down. I hate to see him like this. His leg is twitching.
“You know I can’t do that.” I tried to lower my voice, I don’t know if anyone’s followed us here. Or how much time we have left.
“Why not?” He asked me this like a boy asks his mom why they can’t get a puppy.
“Because,” I dropped my gaze to my fingers. “I can’t just keep running away. They’ll never stop.”
“Why have you already given up when we haven’t even tried yet?”
This question hits me abruptly. I don’t know. I tilt my head slightly to him. He doesn’t understand, does he?
“Because I know them. I know what they do. And I can’t lose anyone else, not anymore.”
He lays himself in my lap, and I brush through his hair as lovingly as I can.
“I can’t lose you.” He’s lost too many himself. I can’t forget that.
“I know.” I brush through the white streak. “I’m gonna try my best to work something out with them, but if I can’t you have to understand this is the end.”
I blink a few times and look around the room. “I’ll finally be with them if I die. Maybe.”
“Please don’t say that.” He whimpered. My insides hurt for him. I hate to do this. But I don’t know what the right thing to do is, and the Great Being won’t help me anymore. Maybe they never did.
“Ok.” I took a deep breath. “I’m gonna call the team and let them know what’s going on. Just in case.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tried to group call them. Duke and Barbara didn’t answer, but Dick and Stephanie did.
“Hey guys, I’m not gonna be around for a while, ok? I just don’t want anybody to worry.”
“Wait, what? Lydia, where are you?” It was Dick.
“I’m safe for now, but I think case two is gonna need to be seen about, umm…urgently. I don’t need anybody to come looking for me.”
“No way we’re just gonna sit around while you’re dealing with them by yourself.” It was Stephanie.
I tried to keep the urgency out of my voice. “You have to. They already know that all of us have been talking about them. They sent..a note to the apartment.” I intake air quickly. “Just tell Bruce I’m sorry, and tell Damian he can have the horse if I don’t come home.”
Stephanie’s line suddenly cut out.
“Steph?” Dick sounded concerned.
“Before I go, can you check on her but also Babs and Duke? They didn’t answer the call.” I waited for Dick to answer.
“Ok, nobody needs to do anything. If Jason is there with you, tell him everybody needs to come straight to Bruce’s. I’ll find out what’s going on with everyone else.”
Dick hung up.
I got up from the bed and started suiting up. “Just stay here with Roy, ok? I don’t know what’s going on with everybody else, but I need to get to the Court before they do.” I bent to get my boots out, and the dart bag. Where was the dart bag?
“I’m sorry about all of this, I really am.” I searched through my bag, digging through clothing and supplies.
“I’m sorry, too.” Wait a minute, why was he so close behind me now? I glanced up at the room’s mirror as I searched for the darts.
Oh, fuck no. I rolled out of the way as he attempted to stick me with two of the darts.
“Jason, what the f-“ I tried to put a fire wall up, but too late. He got hold up my leg and ripped me toward him.
“No!” I kneed him in the face, knocking him back far enough I could dart by. The flames were on the ground around us now. I tried to use them as a block between him and me, but the room was too small.
I turned and balled my hands up defensively. “What are you doing?” I asked furiously. My eyes burned with anger, I felt it.
“What I have to.” Jason lunged at me and I just barely dodged. I looped back behind him and tried to think of a plan. Ok, all I need to do is just get the darts.
As he lunged again, I went low and kicked his thigh as hard as I could. I can’t hold back now, this is a grown man and I have no backup.
As I regained my footing, my ankles were taken out from under me. I toppled to the ground, with Jason swiftly pinning me to the floor.
“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled at him. “Now they’re gonna kill us all and I won’t be able to save you!”
“Maybe not,” he growled. “But I might be able to save you.” I saw a flash of the dart going towards my thigh. I bucked and did all I could, but it’s no use. The dart needle goes through my pants and into my leg. It hurts. So this is what I’ve been doing to people this whole time? Luckily I have at least a small tolerance built up for that kind of thing. It has to do with the healing factor. So things like drugs and even alcoholic things won’t affect me as much as other people.
I heat myself up just enough so he gets off instinctively. I crawl up and stumble into the corner of the room.
“How could you do that?” I yelled at him, ripping the dart out of my pants.
“Why can’t you see I’m trying to help you?” He yells back.
“What would ‘help me’ is if you listened to what I’ve been saying this whole time!” I could feel my legs getting tired now. Uh oh. The dart bag was still on the ground, nearest to Jason, but if I really tried….
He must have seen me glance at it. We both lunge at it. He reaches it, but I kick it from his hand. Jay yelps, and I feel a twinge of guilt. But, too damn bad.
I try to plunge one of the darts into him but he catches my arm. My legs begin to sink. This is not good.
“What is it gonna take,” my arm was shaking in the struggle against his. “For you to let me help?”
I see him reaching for another dart, while my other arm is still trying to push off his. This is very, very bad.
“You can’t help! You know that better than anybody..” I bit his arm as hard as I could, but I felt the second dart hit me in the arm. I’m screwed now.
Blood ran down my lip and I wiped it off, sinking against the wall.
I felt my breathing slowing. “I can’t believe you.” I glared at him, making sure he knows this is near unforgivable.

Jason sits on the other side of the room, also against the wall. I probably broke his hand, but he deserved it. I’ve been tricked by men one too many times, and this was the last night. Possibly my last ever night.

Suddenly, the window in the hotel was shattered, as well as the door. It was the Court. The Talons surrounded us with perfect form, as they’re made to do.
They took Jason out easily, and he didn’t fight back all that much.
I raised my eyes to what I assumed was the General.
“Lydia Blood.”
“Talon,” my eyes flicked around the room. “And Talons.”
“We’ve been watching you for some time.”
“I know.” I tried to act like I wasn’t worried. But I am terrified.
“You have been sentenced to death by the Court of Owls.” And with that, the General slammed my head into the wall.

I blinked a few times and found myself in one of the main holding rooms. Well, you can call it a room. It’s much bigger than a room, like times a thousand. The entire underground system is almost the entirety of Gotham, if you can imagine.
My head hurts very bad. I sway, but I pick myself up off the marble floor of the ‘room’. More like a giant vault. All around me, there are giant marble statues of court members. They all have human bodies, but owl heads. None of the statues are labeled.
I see from my place on the floor there is some of my blood, I probably have a concussion. That’s ok. I won’t be around long enough to care. But you see, I have to play by the Court’s rules. And the Court has many rules.
The lights here are very bright in some places, and very dark in others. It’s part of the point, to confuse the victims.
I stumble around and try to find one of the exiting passageways. I wander for what I feel like is a long time.

I finally come across one of the damn fountains. It is a huge, white fountain, with statues of owls sprayed water from their mouths. One of the main rules here, do not drink the water. It’s basically filled to the brim with hallucinogens, part of the inspiration for my darts.

I wandered a little bit further, until I made it to the maze. You see this maze, when you’re on the hallucinogens, is made to be like what your past is. So it could appear differently for everybody. But in reality, it’s just a maze. A difficult one, but a plain maze nevertheless.
I make my way further into the maze, and find yet another fountain. This time, a voice booms from above and all around me.
“Drink it. You know the laws of the Court.”
“I know the laws of the Court.” I repeat emotionlessly. It’s something I’ve had to repeat many times before.
I kneel before the fountain, starting into the seemingly clear water. My pupils are very dilated, and there’s still some blood on my face. Not good, not good at all. It crosses my mind to fake-drink the water, but I decide against it. They’ll know. They always do.
I drink a few sips of the water gratefully. I am very thirsty, anyways.
My vision starts to distort almost immediately afterwards. I try to remind myself that nothing I’ll see is real. I make my way further into the maze, brushing up against the walls as I go.
Voices fill my head, some of Jason, some of mama. All of them saying things I’ve heard before, mixing together in a horrendous song.
My fingers twitch absently.
“Great Being, show me the way.” I allow the flames to ignite the ground, seeing which direction they go. It’s like dropping a penny, you see. With my power input, they are able to do what they please if I let them.
I follow my own flames down a few passageways, eventually stumbling upon the half-burned body of Edward.

“Daddy?” I stare horrifiedly at the body. It crawls and twists towards me, trying to make sound.
“I’m sorry, I should never have-“
The body begins to scream at me wordlessly with fury. I back away quickly and turn a few corners as if to outrun it.
Down another hallway, I find Slade and Scarecrow conversing.

“Hello, dear.” Scarecrow turns to me slower than would be humanly normal.
I put my hand up against one of the maze walls for some source of comfort.
“What do you want?”
“We want you to let go of your fear, of course.”
“My fear of what?” I asked roughly.
“Why, everything.” Slade crawls on all fours behind Scarecrow as he looms closer and closer.
“I’m not scared of anything. And I definitely won’t be scared when I’m dead.” Slade begins to climb up the flat wall, while Scarecrow continues to stare at me with amusement.
“Well, yes, you will be dead. But I doubt it will be as fear-free as what you’re assuming.”
“Probably not.” My eyes tilted up from Scarecrow to the ceiling. “Are you gonna get your friend or what?”
“No,” Scarecrow smiled coldly. “He wishes to scare you before your final peace.”
I try to roll my eyes. “Well, that’s not-“
Slade jumps down in front of me suddenly and I scream. Feathers protrude through his skin, and he screams at me with an owl’s voice.
“What the hell is this?!” I shriek. I started to run, but Slade has his weapons. I have nothing. And I can’t waste my flames, no matter what happens.
I race as hard as I can, but I’m not faster than him. I feel a blade rip through the back of my calves, causing me to fall. I roll a few times, but when I look back up to defend myself, there is no one there. I need to keep walking. It’s the rules.

As I’m walking, I hear what sounds like Tim.
“Lydia?”
“Yes? Is that really you?” I call out.
“I think so?”
“Tell me something only Tim would know.” I frantically search around the maze, but I find no one. I can only hear him.
“I’m sorry about wrecking your car that time.”
I laughed a little, hopelessly. “I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that now.”
“So what’s the plan?” He sounds like he’s getting further away.
“Wait! Don’t move!” I call out.
“I’m not!” He’s even further now.
“Tim!” I scream.
It’s too late. I can’t hear him anymore. I start trotting along the maze, getting deeper and deeper in.
Which way? Left? No, let’s go right.
I find yet another fountain. A horrifying, horrifying fountain. This one is even bigger than the other ones, decorated with giant marble owls and swords. But, impaled on the owls and the swords, are Talons. My colleagues. They’re the ones that didn’t make it. I recognize the half-cannibalized one that failed that move I tried with Dick.
Blood seeps into the fountain, mixing with the clear water. It’s like a tree. A horrible, evil-looking tree.
One of their hands twitches slowly. Oh, no.

Great Being, if you’re out there please end me now. And help get my friends out.

Chapter Text

I stared at the fountain in horror as it began to convulse. Yes, the whole thing. I ran from it, but my fallen colleagues tried chasing me. They ripped themselves from the fountain, blood and gore smearing into the water and falling out of the fountain.
I ran in a blind panic away from them, even further into the maze. These are the rules of the Court.
The lyrics to ‘Strangers’ echoed in my head.
‘But God is telling you and I that there is death, for all of us’

I know Ethel, I know. If I had to die, I was happy to die with her lyrics in my head. I raced down the maze, but the lyrics in my head calmed me some. If I die, I will die, and there’s nothing I can do. But if not, I will fight. I can save everyone, if I’m willing to try hard enough.
I saw her at the end of one of the passageways.
“Mama? Mama!” I ran to her without thinking.
Mama was also burnt to a crisp, essentially. She said nothing, but I could tell she’s sorry now.
“Mama!” I cried, bending down to her body. I hugged what I could, a mangled faceless body- burnt almost to dust. “I’m so sorry. I could have saved you from him.” I looked up through tears to see the rest of my family approaching us. Paul, Ambrose, and my sisters- Daisy, Scarlet, and Grace. Paul peered out from behind Daisy.
“Why did you do this to us?” He asked timidly.
I scrambled up from mama. “Now you know that’s not true.” I told him aggressively. “We just talked in the dream! You know I would never do something like this.” Paul said nothing.
My family did nothing to attack me. They just sat, and stared. Well, mostly stared. Some of them didn’t have eyes anymore, which I was very upset about.
“Paul, now you know I’m a good sister.” I pleaded. “I’m coming to see y’all soon. I promise. It won’t be very long now.”
Each member stepped back into the darkness, one by one, never turning from me. Paul was last. I crouched to him. “You be good, and take care of mama, ok?”
I thought I saw him nod before he disappeared into darkness, as well. I turned to say my goodbyes to mama but she left me.
I wandered more and more, coming across depictions of my life. In one of the halls, I found a recreation of one of the cornfields we all played in when we were younger.
I have to do this for them. One last thing. I know how to get out of here. I know how. I start to pick up a brisk pace and weave through the halls. I see things move and people call to me, but I ignore it. What goes on around me isn’t my business anymore.
After a while, the things start to be overwhelming. It crosses my mind to gouge out my eyes, but I wonder if they’ll be able to grow back or not. I chew on the sleeve of my jacket as I walk.
I continue gnawing at it as I decide what to do. It’s hard for me to form thoughts, but I’m able to. I didn’t drink that much of the water, and hopefully my healing factor deflected most of the drugs.
I finally rip off a piece of the fabric and I’m able to tie it around my eyes. Instantly the voices and sounds get louder.
Shit, what can I do to block that out?
I come up with the best course of action: to just think of random lyrics and repeat them.
I go through all my favorite songs one by one, blaring them loudly in my head. Then I start walking again. I get on one of the walls and trace it with my hand. It seems like I do that for hours. At one point, I lost my footing and fell down some stairs a pretty long way.
I took this as a sign I was getting closer.
“We’re waiting on you, Lydia.” The voice comes from all around, interrupting my lyric-reciting.
“I know you are.” I say loudly. “I’m trying to find you.” You see, with the Court, you cannot be emotional. This is a huge sign of weakness to them.

I wander along the halls, still tracing my hand further and further. It’s starting to wear away at my skin now.
I walk straight into a large body.
“Mmph!” It almost knocked me down. I took my handmade blindfold off to find Bruce.
“Bruce? Is that you?” He must have drank that damn water.
“Do you see that? Do you see them?” He grabs me forcefully, his eyes wild.
“Hey, stop!” I rip myself from his grasp. Why did the Court allow him to be in here with me?
“Bruce, nobody is there. It’s drugs from the water.” I put a hand on his arm, hoping to bring him away from whatever state he’s in. His eyes seemed to return to a semi-normal state.
“Let’s keep walking.” He turned away without waiting for me and started walking left.
I followed him without saying anything. It makes me feel a little safer having him here, if he is real.

After a while, I interrupt the voices to ask him something.
“What should we do?”
He doesn’t look back. “We find Damian, first. Then, we beat anyone’s ass who was involved with this.”
I lowered my head and kept following behind him. I don’t think that’s a very good plan.
He must be thinking a lot of things, so I don’t intervene. He is the Detective. I’m just the Alchemist.
We continue meandering through the maze. I don’t know what he’s seeing, but I’m seeing more and more people from my past. Even Penguin made an appearance at one point.
Soon, we come across yet another owl statue in the middle of one of the rooms. It’s a statue of the Talon, or so I thought. Bruce gets too close to it, and the statue leaps from its place and starts attacking him.
Talons usually carry swords, but they also like these little tiny throwing knives-that hurt very bad. This one is a lot bigger than Bruce. Bruce blocks a lot of the blows from the Talon, but it manages to slash him once with a knife.
As he’s distracting it, I sneak behind the Talon- hoping to kill it with its own sword. Bruce sees what I’m doing.
He throws punches just as fast as the Talon tries to dodge them.
I snatch the large sword from out of the Talon’s sheath and swirl, attempting to stab it in the side. Bruce kicks out, and I end up stabbing it halfway through the stomach. It’s almost just like Slade did to me.
“Go!” Bruce runs toward a doorway in the maze. I chase after him the best I can, leaving the Talon and the sword.
We pass blindly into the doorway, but there’s apparently another set of stairs. We tumble down, Bruce tries to separate me from most of the stairs and I appreciate it.
We land in a pile at the bottom.
“I see you’ve found the Courtroom.”
I am dragged away from Bruce and thrown in the middle of the room on my knees.
“Yep. Pretty sure we found it.” I lift myself up. There are guards everywhere. I am completely surrounded, and so is Bruce. And so is…everybody else? I count out them all, everybody except… Roy. Ok, maybe Roy and Plushy got away. I will believe they did, for now. Everybody is a little beat up, some with black eyes and some with bloody noses, but all are alive. My Jason is there, he’s alive as well. For now.
The room is very bright, but the Court members sit above us in the shadows. Their owl masks reflect off the light below them. I hear whispering, but I can’t hear what they’re saying.
Bruce doesn’t put up much of a fight, I don’t think he can right now. Three of the Talons slam him into a wall, and he sits. He does not get up.

“Lydia Blood, accused of discussing our Court to others, conspiring and plotting against our Court, and involving others in doing so.”
I half-raise my eyes to the Judge. This is the Court leader, somewhat. The Judge is mostly a speaker for the entire Court, not necessarily one to make decisions for the Court. I have to be very careful what I say here.
The Judge leaned over their stand. “Does evidence need to be provided or do you accept your execution, along with theirs?” Imagine the theaters where people used to watch surgeries- that is exactly like this.
My head hurts very bad, and a drop of blood falls from somewhere on my face to the ground. The family is silent, but Bruce gazes at me indistinctly. I can’t tell what he is thinking.
“Evidence doesn’t need to be provided. The Court is correct. However, I would like to explain my side.”
“No need.” The Judge says dismissively.
“Yes.” I hear whispers in the crowd. “I would like to explain my side, and propose something if I can.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” The judge says.
“So have the laws changed since I was a member?” I bite my tongue. Shit. I hear some gasps and angry words from the Owls.
The Judge laughs a little. “No, no they have not changed. I see you remember our traditions?”
“Yes.” Some hair falls in my face. I don’t not look at my family. I cannot. “Permission to speak freely?”
“Of course. This is your trial after all.” The Judge says this with amusement. The Court likes to play with victims, as you can tell.
“In my opinion, I should be immune to the Court’s actions against me. The other defendants,” I don’t look at them when I say this. “Have known about the Court for a long time. There was almost nothing I told them that they already didn’t know.” I sweep my gaze around the room quietly. “I have helped the Court for a long time. It doesn’t seem to uphold your…ideals, to kill me off like this.”
The Owls seem to ponder this. The Judge finally chimes in. “Lydia, we take no pleasure in killing you.” That’s a lie. “You have a lot of potential to us, and you have already assisted the Court greatly. However, you have broken too many of the laws, and this means you must face the consequences.”
I’m running out of time, and the Court’s patience.
“I understand. But I was hoping to pay the Court back in some way, if you’re willing to let the other defendants go.”
Some Owls in the crowd laugh, and others shift in their seats. I can’t see any of their faces, they all are wearing owl masks.
“I don’t think releasing the defendants will be a solution for us. They’ve already seen the Court, and each one has already proven they’re not willing to simply walk away.” The Judge seems to look from me to them.
“But they haven’t upset the Court before, have they?” I glance around to the Court, hoping to get a reaction. “They have known about the Owls for a long time, but they’ve done nothing to act against you.”
“You are correct, in that sense.” The judge said this begrudgingly. “But they have seen too much, you understand?”
I let my eyes fall slightly. “I do. But you said I have potential, do I not?”
The Judge looks back toward the Owls. “Yes,” they say this slowly. “And it is true you have proven yourself before, but the Court is not convinced that will be enough this time.”
“I understand.” I look up to the Judge with a glint of fire in my eyes. “Then there’s one last thing I want to propose.”
“And what is that?” The Judge asked, almost kindly. I know all too well, the Court is anything but kind.
“I want to propose the seventeenth state!” I say this loudly, to get a rise from the Owls.

Chapter Text

“Quiet!” The Judges voice silents the other members from their chattering. I try to hide my smugness. The seventeenth state hasn’t actually been enacted as far as I know. The last time was probably before I was a member.
“Miss Lydia,” the Judge recomposed themselves. “The seventeenth state hasn’t been enacted in over fifty years. We simply cannot allow-“
“But it is still an active law, yes?”
The Judge clenched one hand. “Yes, it is still an active law.”
“So then I have a right to it, yes?” If I had to die, I was gonna go down with a fight.
The Judge sighed impatiently. “The Court will need some time to discuss this.”
“Will I be able to discuss this with the other defendants?” I tried to frame this as submissively as possible.
I heard some members of the Court make annoyed noises.
“I don’t see why not. But you have two minutes, and you will be escorted to them to prevent any further conspiring.” The Judge waved his hand dismissively.
I calmly walked to the rest of the family with a Talon trailing behind. There’s no need for that, I won’t give anything away. That would be too obvious.
I walk straight up to Jason and smack him. “That’s for being a dumbass and trying to save me.” I pulled him into a kiss, possibly harder than I meant to. “And that’s for being a dumbass and trying to save me.”
Everyone started chattering at the same time.
“What the hell is this?”
“What’s gonna happen to us?”
“Where’s Roy?”
“The seventeenth state- what is that?”
I ignored all these questions.
“It’s been an honor.” I brush foreheads with each one for a moment. “Everything’s gonna be ok.”
Bruce was slightly off-set from everyone else. I only nodded to him. He knows the plan.
“Your time is up!” The Judge silences everyone. That was definitely not two minutes, but I’ll let it slide. I don’t plan to be here very long.
“I take it you’re aware of the rules of the seventeenth state?” The Judge seems to loom over me.
“I’m aware.” I take note of one of the nearby drains. It’s for blood, but tonight it will be used for something else.
“I will proceed with the rules, anyways. To keep tradition, of course.” I don’t like this Judge. They’re kind of an asshole.
The Judge clears their throat. “The seventeenth state is a law which consists of the defendant proposing the Dance to the Court, in exchange for whatever it is that they are wanting. In this case…” the Judge prompts me.
“I want all of our freedoms, including my own. If I win.” Oh, I’ll win all right.
“Splendid. Does the Court agree with this?”
The Owls screeched and cheered. Of course they agree with it, they love seeing blood spilled. Even if they pretend like they don’t.
I try to take it a step further. “And you’ll leave us alone for good? If I win?”
The Judge pauses at this.
“You will be safe. For this round. And that is if-you win.”
I don’t like the sound of that.
“That’s not tradition. If I win, I win. But we’ll leave you alone, too.” I glare up at the Court. I’m starting to not be able to hide my distaste.
Voices move in waves along the crowd.
“What does this Court think?” The Judge asked. A boy came from the crowd, by the looks of it- no older than fifteen. This sadly is the way of the Court, even children have to be involved. He whispered what I’m guessing is the Court’s answer to the Judge.
“The Court has made their final decision.” They said, threateningly. “We would be willing to uphold that, if you win. Additionally, you need to uphold the rules on your end, which means no discussing or conspiring against the Court. Also,” the Judge paused. “If the Court summons you again, you must come.”
My eyebrows twitched. “Why would I be summoned here again?”
The Judge was getting more impatient. “Like we’ve already stated, you were a very valuable member to the Court. A very powerful Talon in your brief time here, indeed. If we need you again, you will come.” They repeated.
I tried not to think about it too much.
“Ok, I agree to that.” I ignored the mad whispering across the floor from me. I knew they wouldn’t agree with this, but it’s my decision. And it’s not like I have much of a real ‘choice’.
“Very well,” the Judge sat back in their seat, ready for the bloodbath. “Let the Dance proceed.”
The owls made their noises as the Talons came forward. You see, this is a fight to the death. Either I kill them or they kill me, there is no alternative. But, as tradition, if the defendant or anyone else is a meta, they are completely free to use what abilities they have. The Court values metas, so they give them a lot of advantages like that.
It’s about twenty Talons, I count. Not including the guards circling the rest of the group and Bruce.
The Talons fan out, making a particular formation in the room. The Dance is very difficult, you see- one misstep and you’ll be killed fairly instantly. Plus, they have a shit-ton of knives.
I begin backing away, one foot behind the other. Three steps. It’s the rules. I dip my head to them, which is what the opponent is supposed to do. This will all look very weird to everyone else, but I don’t care. It’s between me and the Court now.

I bobbed my head slowly up and down, bending at the waist and snaking my body. The Talons did the same. I waited for them to form a half-circle around me. Now, I will explain to you the point of this: most of it is to confuse the enemy, like the snaking of my body and the head bobbing. It’s supposed to intimate the person you’re attacking, but it’s also tradition in a respect-type of way. I do not take my eyes off the Talon that is in front of me. He’ll be my first target.
The other Talons get lower and lower to the ground, so do I. I pick a weapon of choice, the first thing that comes to mind is scythes. I wield two, both flaming excitedly. I don’t have a ton of experience with scythes, but no time is a bad time to learn.
I slowly stop shifting my weight and stop moving. There is the moment of peace. It only lasts a moment, hence the name. In a single blink, I rush at the first Talon, sliding to the ground on my knees. In doing this, I slash at the legs with the scythes- hoping to sever some tendons. I succeed.
I create a type of wave to shield from the other ones while I deal with him. He falls to the ground, throwing knives as he’s down. I can’t dodge all of them, but I do what I can to end him quickly. You see, I won’t break my promise to Bruce. This is because a lot of the Talons aren’t actually alive anymore. A lot of them are puppet-type bodies. Zombie soldiers essentially. They can be taken out, but not killed in a literal sense. Bruce knows this somehow, I think he must have had a run-in with them before.
I sliced the neck with one of my scythes as fast as I could. I can’t get too bogged down with just one. As soon as I turn from him, I get thrown to the ground by another one. And then two. I feel my ribs getting slashed open, and I can’t help but scream. Like I said, the knives are very sharp. I cover myself with flames and protect outward, hoping to ensnare some. I do, I get two, but it’s not enough. Plus, they don’t feel pain, so it’s a waiting game with the fire. Eventually they both crumple to the ground, and I have to turn on the rest. I twirl the scythes, blood smearing onto the ground. It is mine, but also theirs.
I hear the Court erupt above me with mixed emotions. I swirl the fire in multiple rings around myself, turning to see where the weak link is. How many have I taken down? I lost track already.
I turn to Bruce, time to break the act.
“You gonna come over here and help or what?” I flip my scythes once.
More noise erupts from the Court and now the Judge is yelling at us.
“This is unacceptable!” He slams his hands down on the balcony railing. I know he’s a man now because of this.
“You know what? This whole thing is a crock of shit!” I give him the proud finger.
Accidentally I let one of the flame circles down, and two Talons come at me quickly. I duck under one and slam into the other with my shoulder, slicing at the head with both scythes. The other one somehow gets around my neck from behind, pulling me off. I slam the back of my head into theirs. What’s just a little more head trauma, am I right?

I can’t see what everyone else is doing at the moment. I hear some grunts from Bruce behind me. I go limp and roll to the floor, out of the Talon’s grasp. I slash their legs as well, making them tumble. They slash me on the way down though, ripping through one of my tattoos. That’s gotta be a pretty bad cut.
“Ok, now that’s not cool at all-“ I slammed one foot down hard onto their face. Maybe I shattered the front part of the skull good enough that they can’t get up.
“So what’s the plan?” Dick calls to either the me or Bruce. I can’t see what he’s doing.
“Ugh-“ I got punched in the stomach. I punched back harder. “The plan is basically not to die!”
In my side vision, I see that Damian is being teamed up on. He is a good fighter, but Talons are ruthless. I know this from experience.
I kick off the one I’m fighting hard and run to Damian to help.
“I can handle myself!” He yells. He has no weapons, but he somehow was able to get one on the ground.
“No you can’t!” I burn the other one, while the second one tackles me to the ground. It knocked the wind out of me, and it leaves me gasping for air for a second. What is it with them and choking? Must be a new thing. This one sits on my chest and has started choking me. I kick my legs instinctively, and Damian tries pulling the Talon off. Great, now I can’t use flames with Damian so close.
“Back up,” I choked out.
“What?” Damian is still trying to rip the Talon’s head back.
“Move!”
He does so. I envelope the Talon in flames. The grip doesn’t loosen until a few moments later, and I wiggle out from under them.
I need to breathe for a few minutes, or my oxygen is gonna get too low. I already felt out of breath, before all the choking.
“Go help your brother!” I point to Dick. Damian doesn’t argue, and I’m a little surprised at that.
Everyone else is spread out on the floor, while the Owls erupt into chaos above us.
Where’s Steph? I spot her and Cass back to back. Multiple Talons are circling them.
“Think we’ll get out of this one?” Steph asked Cass.
“Let’s hope so.” Cass lunged for one of them, Stephanie at another. I joined them, changing my scythes to my favorite sword.

“Duke!” I find him a distance away from us. Shit, I wouldn’t guess he’s meta, too. I can’t tell if his thing is fire or…light? It’s definitely light. I should ask him about that later, that’s pretty cool. He’s busy blasting one of the Talons with seemingly a beam of light, but I have to interrupt.
“Yeah?” He doesn’t look up from his Target. The light essentially absorbs the Talon, leaving almost nothing.
“Catch the Judge!”
“Got it!”
I don’t see where he goes, I spin around to help Steph and Cass. One of the Talons has pinned Steph against the wall, about to cut her.
I make a chain-type of flame connecting to the Talon’s arms and legs. I don’t usually make those because they’re so intricate, but they work and they’re hard to break.
The Talon’s hands slowly pull away from Steph. She drops down, and kicks the legs out from the Talon as she goes. I make myself an axe, and down this one goes.
It looks like Cass is handling the other one pretty well. Where’s Tim and Jason?
Oh, no. They’ve got the General.
I rush up to help them, but both are arguing.
“Can’t you just hit right, for once in your life?” Jason punches the General and Tim kicks him from the side.
“You’re the one who won’t keep him distracted!” The General swoops down and slices Tim’s arm.
I come to Jason’s side, still holding the axe. “I’m still pissed at you for what you did.” I say breathily.
“I know.” He growled. We’re both dodging the General’s knives.
“Wait, what did he-,” Tim hits the General in the neck somehow. “Do?”
I roll my eyes to Tim. “The asshole stabbed me twice with my own blow darts.”
Jason elbows the General, while I go for the legs. Tim gasps in fake-shock.
“Not cool, not cool at all.”
“Nope,” I grunt out. I’m locking myself around the General’s legs from the ground, and engulfing us in flames. “That’s why I’m still pissed.”
Punches fly from all sides, I stay where I am.
“Yeah, I mean I can see why.” Tim’s hair flips as a punch is thrown.
“Can’t you mind your business for five damn minutes?” Jason throws up his hands at Tim.
The General falls and I dart up, careful not to get kicked.
“How did y’all get here anyways?”
“Probably same as you. I got jumped by seven or eight of them on the way home.” Tim kicks the General one last time.
“Lucky, we got jumped by like twelve.” I brush some now-tangled hair out of my face. There’s still more. There’s always more.
Tim wiped his bloody nose and I summoned the scythes again. Jason stood a little in front of me. We’re ready to keep going. I glance around us. Everybody seems to be winning, but barely. There’s just so many. But Dick is helping Bruce, and Steph and Cass have joined Damian. Duke is nowhere to be seen, so I assume he’s busy hunting down the Judge. I notice suddenly that Barbara isn’t here.
“Hey, where’s Alfred and bar-“ I don’t mean to name-drop, but the Court knows everything about us anyways.
“They’re safe. They’re you-know-where.” Tim meets the upcoming Talon and swirls around him, taking one of their own knives.
“Huh..” I glance to Jason. Must have been a coincidence that she didn’t answer the phone then. I put up a small fire wall as one of the Talons tries to jump at me. They throw a knife, and it catches me somewhere around the ribs.
“Are you in the mood to try something new?”
“What?” Jason is busy head-locking one of them as they struggle.
“Do you wanna try something new?” I call again. I side-step and cut the enemy’s arm with their own knife.
“Yeah, I guess?” He throws the Talon off.
“Ok. Hold him.” I create a new weapon, one I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. It’s one of those cool ball-chain weapons, the ones with spikes. I even have a tattoo of one. It’s a knight on a horse, wielding one.
Jason locks his arm around the Talon’s head, while I swing the ball full-force into them. The Talon collapses relatively easily.
Still holding my new favorite weapon, I dart back to help Steph and Cass.
“New favorite?” Steph asks when I arrive. Both are trying to hold down one particularly twitchy Talon.
“Yep!” I swing it into the Talon. “Just takes up a lot of energy to use.”
“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know how many of them are left would you?” Dick is flipping one of the Talons over himself while he talks.
“Uhh…” I stop and look around. They must have released the entire army. “I feel like there’s a lot left.”
I spot Duke, dragging back the Judge.
“Everybody get to the drain!” I sprint to the drain, almost sliding to the ground as I do so. Duke tossed the now beaten Judge toward the drain. I make a sort of ball of flames to envelope all of us so no more Talons can get in. It’s hot for them, but they’ll be ok. I feel myself breathing more heavily now, but I should be able to last a few seconds longer.
Bruce takes the Judge up and slams him into the ground almost on his neck. I’m concerned the Judge might not have even survived that part.
I keep the flame ball going.
Bruce lifts him up off the ground with near-ease, despite his injuries. “You will not be threatening my family again- do you understand?”
Choking sounds come from the Judge. I raise my eyebrows to Steph to try and lighten the mood, and we both look away quickly.
“Deal…you will all be…immune..to the Court…for now…”
Bruce slams him down again, and I hear things crunch. He puts on foot on the Judge and presses in. “No. We’re immune forever. And I still haven’t decided if I should hunt you all down, or let my children do it.” The Judge gasps for air.

Chapter Text

Bruce didn’t let up from the Judge’s chest. “Please……”
My flame ball is starting to die out, and that’s gonna leave us exposed to however many Talons are out there.
“Can we wrap this up?” I pant out. It’s taking way too much air, and my ribs are starting to burn very, very bad.
Bruce lifts the Judge and throws him almost into my fire wall. I make just enough space that he passes through without burning, but the rest of the wall flickers.
Dick begins to try and open the gate. It’s sealed shut, but Duke apparently can make crowbars with light. Him and Dick pry it open swiftly, their muscles moving in sync.
“Everybody in, now!”
I wait until last, but I’m dying out. I can’t uphold this for much longer. Bruce waits for me, as Jason reluctantly goes with Steph. Damian had to be wrestled in by Dick, not wanting to leave Bruce. “We have to go, now!”
“Father!”
“Cmon, we have to go.”
“I’m waiting on everybody else to get in first!” The wall is flickering very badly now.
“Lydia, now!”
The fire wall breaks. I take a step towards him, but everything moves so slowly now. Something slices through my leg before I can realize what’s going on. I turn, but a few of them are already springing onto me. I can’t support any more fire power right now.
I get taken to the ground. I see that Bruce is still fighting two of them. He is winning, but I’m not. I claw at them the best I can but it’s no use. I’ve had this happen before with the simulation incident, and it’s no use.
One of the Talons twists one of the knives that’s lodged in my leg, and I have to scream loudly. It’s down to the hilt, and gushing blood.
I try to muster up all the energy I have left. My body aches, and I’m sure Bruce is very tired, too. There’s no way he’s dodged all those hits.
“Help!” I call to Bruce, but I think he’s gonna be too late. I feel the knife slice against my neck harshly. I put up one last fire wall and try to push it away from myself so the Talons will back off. Why is it always me getting hurt this bad? Not very fair, I don’t think. But worth it, yes. I’d rather it be me than someone else. But also, after all these years out of the Court, I’ve gotten way too sloppy. I have to better. If I’m able to be.
I crawl to Bruce through the wave of Talons. Why the hell is there so many? You would think this many would be out of the budget….
Blood smears along with me as I drag myself. Sad, really. I feel like I could have done more alone.
Bruce grabs me and pulls me into the drain with him, shutting it behind us. He drops to the bottom of the drain system, landing hard on his feet. I’m sure he probably broke something from that.

I splash down into it and try to lean myself against the walls of the drain. “Arghh you okkk-“ I cough out. I can barely talk, I don’t know why. I forgot why.
“No talking.” He says firmly. He tries to pick me up but I yelp. That knife is still in my leg, and I’m pretty sure there’s one on my ribs.
“Ok.” He picks me up at a slightly different angle. I don’t complain, but I don’t think he needs to be carrying me like this after how he landed.
I try my best not to lose consciousness this time. I can’t keep doing that, it’s annoying. I’m sure it’s annoying for everybody else as well, having to carry my dead weight around and stuff.
My head just keeps feeling lighter and lighter though.
“Bruce?” My voice sounds all muffled and weird.
“It’s ok.” Well that’s not helpful. I think we walk for a long time, I’m not sure where this drain leads.
My tears start to mix with blood. Not like I can help it, but this is starting to happen more than I’d like. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m not usually much of a crier. I just miss Plushy and Soda. I had reminisced about my memories with them for days, thinking one of them would be my last time seeing either.
Bruce holds a tight hand to my neck as we make our way down the tunnel. I understand why, but it hurts. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen how a tourniquet works, but he’s trying to replicate that. And it’s not fun, I’ll tell you that much.
My hair is matted with blood and sweat now, I’ll have to brush it out when we get home.
I’m very, very tired all of the sudden.

Before I know it, I’m in the field with Paul and my sisters again. But this time, Mama and Ambrose are also there. I run to them crying, and this time, they allow me to hug them all. They’re not just burnt bodies anymore, they look how I remember them in life.
“I missed y’all so, so much!” I squeezed Ambrose and Daisy tight. “I’ll never, ever leave! Never again, I’m here to stay.”
Mama leaned into my back. “No you’re not. It’s not your time yet, Lydia. You still have family back home, isn’t that right?” I sniffed. Everyone has a hue of yellow and gold light. In this meadow, there is no sound. Only us.
“Yeah, that’s right. But won’t they be ok without me? I don’t want to get beat up anymore.” I laid down in the sweet, soft grass. It was very inviting. Paul gazed down at me, still standing. Daisy and Grace had lied down beside me.
“They need you. You should play with them like we always did.” Paul said.
I sigh sadly. “I know they want to, but I don’t know if I have the energy to play with them anymore.”
Ambrose looked around at the meadow peacefully. “We’ll give you the energy, Liddie, no need to worry.” Liddie….where have I heard that one before?
“Mama?” I looked up at her from the long grass.
“Yes?” Mama sat down in the grass and started to braid Daisy’s blonde hair.
“I went to a church the other day…I prayed. I really did. But nobody was there.” I closed my eyes to avoid a disappointed stare. “At least, I didn’t feel anybody there.”
“Lydia?”
“Huh? Yes, Mama?” I turned partially on my side.
“What you believe in is your choice. You understand that? I should’ve told you that a long time ago…”
I was getting exasperated now. “Yes, but what exactly does that mean? Is the Great Being real or not?”
“Lydia-“ Mama took in a breath sharply. “I already said what you believe in is your choice. It’s up to you. If it doesn’t feel right, then it’s not for you.”
I sighed disappointedly, and rolled to Grace. “Well, what do you believe in?” I flicked some grass flowers at her playfully.
“Nope, can’t say!” She dusted herself off and got up. “It’s for you to decide, remember?” Grace always had a hard time pronouncing ‘r’s, so it sounds like she’s saying ‘member’ to anyone who doesn’t know her.
“I guess so.” I hold Paul’s hand and return to a sitting position. “So when will I be able to be with y’all, if I can’t now?”
“No cheating!” Paul smiled and dodged away from my grasp. “You know we don’t know when!”
“Ok,” I decide to give up for now. They’re not gonna explain everything, but that’s ok. I won’t ask anymore. I’m happy to see them, I really am.
“Can you play with me now, while you are here?” Paul starts running away, and Grace and I chase him around the meadow for what feels like a long time. After we get tired, I return to mama. She brushes through my hair as I lay back in the grass. There is no sun here, but it is warm. The heat presses me down lovingly, and I sit with Mama for a long time.
“Lydia?” She brushes through my hair one more time.
“Yeah?”
“It’s time for you to go back.”
“Ok.” I yawned. “Will I see you again?”
“Yes. We love you, Lydia.”
“Love you too, Mama.” I would have said ‘bye’ to everyone else, but I’m too tired now.

I come back to the real world, where I’m still choking on my own blood. Now I’m being carried by Jason, though. I see both of us are streaked with blood. My limbs feel like they’re fading away.
We’re walking through a stream of some type, but in the dark. I see some trees and rocks around us through half/closed eyes.
He has a few more injuries as well, and I hear him yelling at Bruce.
“You just left her up there like that?”
“That’s not what happened!”
“Shut up, Todd!”
“Jason, can we please not do this now?”
“Let’s just get home, guys.”
“I just couldn’t get to her in time, there were too many.”
“You never get there in time.”
The voices all blend, I don’t know who they belong to.
I start coughing again, something I was trying to avoid.
“Hey, hey-“ Jay wipes some hair from my face, shifting most of my weight to one arm and kisses my nose. “We’re almost there.”
I try to say ‘ok’, but there’s too much blood in my mouth.
“Shhh..shh.”
I decide to close my eyes again, partially because I can’t keep them open, and partially because I’m a nosy bitch.
They almost immediately start talking again.
“How could this happen?”
“I don’t know. It’s scary they got us all so fast.”
“How do we know they’re really gonna leave us alone?”
“You heard Bruce. I doubt they would be stupid enough to bother us again.”
“My side hurts.”
“Yeah, that cut looks pretty gross. Maybe Lydia can fix it when she gets better.”
“That doesn’t seem very likely.”
“Damian! She’ll get better. It’s just gonna take time. All the rest of us need to get fixed up, too.”
“Steph is right. Did somebody call Alfred to let him know we’re on the way?”
“Way ahead of you.”
“Ok, good. And we did order more beds right? Per Lydia’s request?”
“Yeah, we have like five beds now, and a bunch of other stuff.”
“Unnecessary stuff.”
“Really? You don’t think we’ll need any of that stuff for all this?”
My hearing closed in on the noise of the stream as we walked through it. It made a nice rippling noise.
I eventually felt the vibrations from Jason’s body that we made it out of the stream onto solid land. The stream noises ceased, and it seemed like we were almost at the Manor. I wondered how close the Drain is from Bruce’s…

“Is she still ok?”
“What does it look like? He almost let her get killed.”
“Jason, we’re not doing this now. Let’s just get inside.”

Going down the stairs while being carried isn’t as fun as it sounds. The knives pulsed in me with almost every step. I wondered briefly how much blood I’ve probably lost. They probably need our blood supply more than me right now. I’ll suggest that in a minute.

“Good lord, what happened to all of you? Master Tim filled me in on some things, but….” It was Alfred. Poor Alfred. He’s old, and I don’t want to overwhelm him with all this. I would be overwhelmed as a nurse having to take care of all of us, too.
Suddenly, I heard a faint plop on the ground.
“Master Tim!”
“Tim?”
“Get him up.”
Sounds like Tim was down for the count, too. Oh well, at least I’m not the only one, now.
There’s some faint noises around the room: packages being ripped open, somebody it sounds like putting Tim on another bed, Cass and Steph talk quietly somewhere around me.

“Cass, should we take her jewelry off?”
“Is that really a priority right now?”
“No, but I just know how much she cares about that damn necklace.”
I do care about my damn necklace.
I feel my necklace being taken off, as well as my earrings.
“How does this one come out?” Ohh, they’re talking about my industrial.
Who I assume is Steph starts pulling on it.
“Ouch..” I said weakly.
“Lydia?” Steph grabbed my face suddenly. “No way you’re still awake. And I think you’re worried about the wrong thing, anyway.” My earrings and necklace clinked somewhere nearby.
“Mm..” I try to organize my thoughts and remember what I was gonna ask. A hand is still strongly pressed to my neck. “How’s Tim?” I can barely say it.
“Shush! Tim is fine, he’s just being dramatic as usual.” So he just collapsed on the ground for fun. Ok, makes sense.
“I saw Mama…”
“Hey, what did we say about talking?” It was Jason. I’m happy I didn’t go with my other family. I think I would have missed him.
I felt needles go in and the knives started being pulled out. Hopefully Alfred or somebody knows how to give meds right. You see, being stabbed isn’t fun. For me at least, it’s like a sharp type of burning that doesn’t let up. Imagine that times like 3-5.
I let out a choked squeal when the thigh one got pulled out. It hurts like a bitch, but at least it was on the leg without tattoos. I’m really, really pissed about my arm. Gonna have to call my artist to redo that one.
My blood is also very hot, which is another thing I guess not everybody knew.
“Somebody swap with me, it’s starting to burn!” Hands left and returned to my leg, I guess to stop the bleeding. I don’t know what their plan is, and I’m already thinking about what I would do. It depends on how deep the wound is, like the length of the knife and such. Can’t have been more than 3-5 inches? No, maybe 4-6. Hmmm…I don’t know.

Everything starts fading in and out. I plan my grand attempt to get up and fix everything myself. I don’t know why I want to, I just feel the need to do things myself.
Everything is starting to be clearer around me, but now I have no idea what drugs I’m on.
“Wait, I wanna-“
“You cannot be deadass right now.” Stephanie crossed her arms above me as Alfred continued to put the sutures in. At least, I’m pretty sure it was Alfred.
“I’m bein’ deadass.” I coughed.
“Lydia, will you just stop?” She shoved one of my arms down as I lifted it, thankfully it’s the non-injured one.

“You’re not getting up.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“We’re handling it fine.”
The flurry of voices overwhelmed me, but I understand.
I still think it’s a little funny to whine. It will take my mind of everything that’s hurting so bad, maybe. “My head hurts..”
Jason leaned into my face, I remember him doing that before. Oh, it was when he stabbed me with my own darts. I’m still mad about that.
“Maybe your head would stop hurting if you stopped talking.”
I blew smoke in his face to protest. “I’m still mad about-“
Steph shoved him away. “Well if she has a concussion it doesn’t work like that.”
Then she said louder, “Everybody needs to chill out!”
“The only person who’s not ‘chill’ is you, Brown.” I almost forgot Damian was even here.
I groaned a little. “I’m starting to feel it…”
You see, if you don’t have experience get stitches or staples, it hurts. Very bad. And also, stitches in a a literal stab wound (also known as a deep hole that’s not supposed to be there) doesn’t always work so easily.
“Almost done.”
“Ok.” I felt the curve of the needle going in and out of my neck. If this leaves a scar, I’m gonna be pissed.
“Are you still ok?”
“Yep. Just like getting a tattoo, except infinitely worse.”
I heard somebody snicker in the background, I was hoping it was Tim.

Finally, everything was all fixed up. I decided to sleep for a while, and somebody brought me some extra pillows.

The day after, I was feeling slightly better. Everything still hurt, but I need things to do. I hate just lying in bed too much.

“Tim, are you there?” I tried shifting my weight so I could set a pillow under my thigh. You see, a lot of bleeding can still happen if the wound has been sewed up on the outside. I don’t think this is the case, but I still wanna make sure.
“Yep. Just me and you.” He sighs, clearly bored.
My neck hurts. I’m gonna get up and get myself some pain meds soon. “Where’s everybody else?”
“It’s daytime, so they’re all either sleeping or at school.”
“Right…” I start throwing my blankets off. “So what happened to you?”
“Lydia…”
“What, what? I’m just getting a few things it’s fine..so anyways?”
“I just got stabbed one too many times, same as you.”
“Mmm, bummer.”
“Total bummer.”
I got snagged on the IV pole. “Hate these stupid things.” I whined. I untangled myself and the IV from about three lines and started dragging my bad leg along.
“Pffttt, you’re gonna bust it.”
“I know. I feel like one of my dementia patients trying to escape or something.”

I open the med cabinet and take out a few things. Morphine, some antibiotics, and..hmm, let’s do- let’s do a tetanus shot just in case.
“Whatchya need? Are you having any pain or anything?” I glance back to Tim as I’m collecting everything.
“Hmmm, a little.”
“Ok.” I think maybe Tylenol and a small dose of oxy would be ok for him. I have to remind myself that dosages are very different on myself compared to non-meta people.
“Here.” I make myself comfy on the edge of his bed. Well, as ‘comfy’ as I can be.
“Did Alfred or anybody chart anything?”
“Possibly. I feel like he did say something about that..” He took the pills. “Got any water?”
“Ehhh…” I glanced around. I’ve never been more thankful the mini fridge they put in here is close by.
“Don’t worry about it-“ He tried convincingly to get me to stop walking around.
“No, it’s fine I got it.” I retrieved him some water, and we sat for a while in silence. My neck hurts very bad, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned. It’s pulsing or something, but I can feel it all in my head and down my arms.

Eventually Tim tries to start a conversation again. “So you think we’re really safe from them?” We’re around the same age, but sometimes I forget he’s still a boy.
“Yeah, I think so.” I absently brush over my neck with my fingers. “If they try anything again we can just sic Damian on em.”
We both laughed at this. Damian would totally execute both of us if he found out.
“So,..what are you goin’ to college for?” I start injecting myself with all the different things I brought over. Tim doesn’t like to look, which I think is amusing.
“I haven’t decided yet. There’s just so many options, you know?”
“Yeah, I get that.” I downed the antibiotics and shared some water.
“What about you?”
“Hmm, what about me?” I tilted my head toward him slightly in confusion.
He cleared his throat. “Like, was nursing school the end for you? Of college, I mean.”
“Oh. Well my plan was to be a nurse practitioner. But then everything kinda…” I smiled, trying to find the words. “Everything just went sideways. But I’ll be one eventually, I think. I just wanna get experience for now.”
“What about you and Jason?” He asked , a little to my surprise.
“What about you and Kon?” I shot back.
“It’s complicated.”
“Complicated for us, too.” I got up and started peeling off the dressing on my thigh. Some leftover supplies were still on one of the tables. So, I decided to use that as an excuse to look and see what the damage was.
“Shouldn’t you be sitting down?”
“Yeah, probably.” I spot one of my favorite spinning chairs and drag it over to the table.
I unwrapped the rest and tried to assess what I was looking at. I sat with one leg folded under me, and the other stretched out.
“Hmm. Alfred actually did really good with these.” The stitches are near-perfection, couldn’t have done better myself.
“He does really good with everything, let’s be honest.”
I looked from him to my leg as we talked. “What about Bruce? It seemed to me like he landed on his feet pretty bad in the Drain.” I started cleaning off the wound with a gauze pad I soaked in saline, careful not to scrape anything too much.
“I honestly don’t know. Him and Jason got into it again and he’s been in his room ever since.” I side-eye him, my way of questioning what happened. “They’re both fine, but yeah I think he shattered a heel or something.”
“Jesus.” I sucked my teeth. “I’ll have to go deal with that in a little while then.”
“Bruce can take care of himself, I wouldn’t underestimate him.” He adjusted his pillow.
“Yeah, I know he can but that doesn’t mean he needs to.”
I brushed a hand across my face. “I don’t even know how the man walked that far with a shattered heel.” I looked to Tim. “Is he always that psycho or just occasionally?”
“You know all of us are like that, right?”
“Hmmm, even Dick?”
“Especially Dick.”
I considered this for a moment.
“I probably shouldn’t bring this up, but remember the simulation incident?”
He shivered. “You act like that’s something I could forget..”
“Yeah..but you know when me and Jason went to go kill off Dick?”
“Yeah.” He said nervously.

“So, when we found him- he was like swinging around on the chandelier and stuff. Literally almost the scariest shit I’ve ever seen.” I giggled. Honestly, this was the only way to cope I could think of.
“That sounds terrifying what the hell?”Tim smiled at the thought of Dick trying to kill us while doing gymnastics or whatever it is that he does. “Honestly it just sounds like the normal him.”

“Nah, the normal him wouldn’t have given up so easily.” I tried to run my thumb over my necklace to discover that it wasn’t there.
“Hey, where did Steph and Cass put my jewelry?”
“It should all be on the table over here.”

I half-limped, half-dragged to the table and found my stuff. Sheesh, maybe I should take some muscle relaxers, too.
“Hey, Lydia?” Tim called from behind me.
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you something?” That’s not ominous at all. I could hear it in his voice he’s trying to figure out how to frame whatever it is he wants to ask.
“Sure, ask me anything you want.” I said, clipping my earrings back in.
“Is the necklace for you or your family?”

“A little for both, I think.” I consider if I should be completely truthful or not. Usually I’m not. “I saw them all yesterday. Wherever they are, it’s a good place. I like it there.” I’m wiping off the dried blood on the necklace with an alcohol pad. Hopefully it doesn’t mess up the gold.
“Yeah, you were kinda telling us all about it.” Tim sounds like a parent whose kid dropped the Book. The Book is the Gilded’s Lamb’s religious book, in case you were wondering.
My smile faded ever so slightly.
“Well that’s not embarrassing at all.” I twirled my fingers around the necklace, trying to resist putting it back on.
“Really, it’s not. I promise none of us thought it was embarrassing.”
Tim is still a boy, in my eyes. Even though he’s only a year or two younger than me and Jason, he’s not as hardened as us. Yet. That’s not to say he hasn’t been through a lot. We all have. But Tim still has more of the vibrant, eager-to-please attitude that not a lot of us still have. I admire him for it, truly.
I broke my own will and put on the necklace again. I remember what Ambrose said about them giving me the energy to continue.
“It is to me, still. But Mama and Paul said it’s not my time yet, so I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing for now.”
My eyes flash in the light of the lamp, I can see them in Tim’s eyes.
“Do you still see your parents?”
“Lydia..my parents aren’t-they’re gone.”
“I know. But do you still see them?” I searched his eyes for an answer to a question only I wanted to know.
“Yeah, sometimes.” I have found my answer, and my eyes flicker away from his.
I go and get even more supplies from the cabinet. I’m bored, and I haven’t seen Tim’s wounds yet.
“What do you believe in?”
“Huh?” I grab two packs of gauze rolls.
“Like what were you taught to believe in? I’ve already researched, so I know. I just want to hear someone explain it.”
He glanced away from me quickly. “If that’s ok?”
I flash a soft smile as I return to his bed with my new supplies. “That’s ok.” I started unpacking all the materials.
“Well, in the Lambs, children from three and up are taught separately depending on if you’re a boy or girl.”
“And coached to believe in the Book?” He didn’t guess this, he already knew the answer. I’m surprised he even knew about the Book, since I’ve never mentioned it out loud to anyone.
“Kinda. It starts out with pounding into everyone’s heads that humanity is doomed, but only for some people. Like people not in the cult,” I said this as I clipped off a gauze piece. “That’s why a girl or woman can only redeem herself by ‘serving’.” I continued to clip the pieces out. “You can only be with the Great Being in the end if you understand serving.”
“‘Serving’ by….” Tim already knew the answer to this, that’s why he said it cautiously.
“By allowing the men around them to do whatever they want. Yes. The boys are raised so that when they become men they might have a chance of becoming the leader.”
I scoot closer so I can lift his shirt and change the dressing.
“I’m sorry, Lydia.”
“It’s ok. But I’m assuming you know about the tapes already?” My voice falters a little bit accidentally.
“Yeah,” he gets quieter. “yeah, I know about the tapes. Bruce didn’t let anybody else watch them though, all the tapes were destroyed.”
“I wish they didn’t have to see those.” I start unwrapping Alfred’s neat, but old dressing. The cut doesn’t seem that bad by my standards, but it won’t heal near as fast. “But all the same, it’s my fault for getting everybody involved. I could have handled it myself if I was strong enough.” I started slowly wiping all the dried blood away. Dried blood becomes powder-ish after a while, in case you wanted to know.
“Anyways, what more did you wanna know about them?“
“I-nothing.” I can feel him shrinking away.
“Tim,” I blink once to show my acceptance of him. “We can keep talking about it. It makes me feel better to talk about it.”
“Ok.” His brown eyes are very sweet, I like them.
“So, like what we saw that night, the Evening of Blood is done every fifteen years, signaling the end of a leader and the rise of a new one.”
The stitches look good, no redness or swelling. Very good.
“And the Evening of Blood is when all the sacrifice stuff happens?”
“Yep. But there are other rituals for different things. Like for weddings, everybody has to drink the blood of the people getting married. And for funerals, you drink the blood of a dove. It’s to symbolize unity with the Great Being, or somethin’ like that.” It’s exactly as I said. I just try to play it off like I don’t remember every single rule and ritual of the Lambs.
“Did they treat all the kids like..like they did with you?” I’m not sure why he’s so nervous, Im trying to have patience with these very directed questions.
“Not quite. All the kids got beat and stuff, but because I’m meta it was-“ I searched for the words. “A lot worse.”
I started layering different types of gauze pads on the wound. “The Lambs don’t believe in metahumans. They think all of us are from the Bad One or something. But, with my dad being a complete idiot, he didn’t realize that the meta genes I got were from him.”

I start layering tape around the edges of my work carefully. “I assume you already know about all this stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“How long did you know about all the Court stuff?”
“About a week before everybody else.” He tried to hide the smugness but I heard it loud and clear.
I laughed. “And you kept it a secret that long?”
He paused. “I thought it would be best to just see how you would turn out first.”
I shook my head a little. “Fair. But didn’t I turn out at least a little good?”
“I think you were always good.” I gaze at him for a long time after he says this, trying to figure out if he’s just flattering me or not. I can’t decide. Tim is very hard to read. This entire conversation could have been bullshit for all I know. I choose to believe it’s not.
“I’m gonna go find Jason.” I stand up and Tim pulls his shirt the rest of the way down. “Thanks for talking with me about everything.”
“It’s no problem,” he waves his hand. “But Kon keeps asking about you. He wants to know when all of us are going out.”

Chapter Text

Before I can even make it out the door, Cass is already there.
“Umm, hey.” I nod and try to sidle around her. That doesn’t work.
“You can’t leave until you’re better.” We’re face to face now, but I’m a little taller than her.
“Please, Cass. It’s not like I’m gonna drive or anything I just wanna make sure everybody else is ok.” I muster up the best puppy-eyes I have.
Cass says nothing, but slowly steps out of the way.
“Thank you, thank you.” I said quickly and started pulling myself up the stairs. My phone’s still in my pocket, but my clothing is ripped and dirty. If I could just shower and change…
The only problem with what I’m trying to do is I have no idea where Bruce’s bedroom is. And I’m not completely sure I want to intrude, I just feel like it’s the right thing to do.
I wander up the stairs but have to pause in the library and lean against the wall. The wounds should be healed up in a day or two, I thinking. Now that the Court is out of the way, temporarily.
You see, I don’t know if I already explained this, I’m sure I have, but my healing depends on several things. One of the main things being adrenaline and cortisol. If I am too stressed, healing with be very slow, similar to non-meta people- just on a bigger scale.
“There’s no way you made it up the stairs.” Steph stood in one of the doorways to the library, crossing her arms.
“Yep.” I said proudly. “I really am fine. Just wanted to see Bruce for a sec.”
I just thought of something, shit.
“Oh, wait, hang on I gotta call Ricky.”
“What? Who’s Ricky?” Steph arched an eyebrow in disbelief, while I wrangled the phone in my pocket.
I didn’t answer, instead I called him.
“Heyy, what’s up? Do you think you could recreate that cat piece that we did a few months ago? Like the same exact thing in the same spot?”
I let Ricky talk for a few minutes, while I flop down on the couch and shift the weight away from my thigh.
“Yep. Like the exact same thing. I had,um, an incident with a kitchen knife.” I played with a pillow as someone else entered the room.
“There’s not gonna be a scar, don’t worry about that part. Look, I’ll pay you triple whatever it is, just don’t grill me about anything else.” I stretched my arm out and turned it, still pissed about the tattoo they messed up.
“Wanna do Friday at 10:00?”
I pause to hear his response.
“Ok, perfect! Thanks, Ricky!” We both hung up at the same time.
“No way you already have a tattoo appointment set up.” Steph said blankly, as if my audacity was astounding.
“Pffttt, it’s fine. But I can’t walk around with it looking like this, that’s gonna bother me.” I try not to look at my arm, now with a jagged but healed patch of skin going right through the ink part.
“You’re bothering me by getting up and walking around.” Steph pinched the bridge of her nose.
I sighed. “Well, know y’all know how I feel trying to make psycho patients stay in the bed.”
Damian was beside her. “You’ve become the psycho patient.”
I side-eyed him. “Fair.” I audibly sighed and looked around the room lazily. “I’m gonna go find Bruce. We should get food tonight, I’m hungry.”
“Father is sleeping.” Damian said, almost guarding the door I noticed.
“Ok, well I won’t argue about it then. Just tell him I’m sorry for everything..and thanks for saving me.” With that, I started to leave. “Oh, and can I borrow that?” I gestured to one of their books. I’ve never read ‘Dante’s Inferno’ but I’m interested.
“I guess, but you need somebody to drive you home.” Stephanie uncrossed herself. “We can take my car, and I’ll bring you back to get yours later, sounds good?”

When we got in the car, I unloaded all the real things I had wanted to grill Tim about.
“So what’s the actually happened with Bruce and Jay?” We clicked our seatbelts.
“Basically, they got in this huge fight..like usual.” Steph seemed to be..tired. Just tired, at the whole situation.
“What about?” I crossed one leg under myself so the injured one was lifted a little bit.
“Kind of about you, but not really.” She turned onto the main road. “He was mad that he thought Bruce left you up there unprotected-“
I interrupted. “But Bruce didn’t leave me anywhere-“
“I know that, and so does everybody else.” Some blonde strands fell into her eyes and she brushed them back. “But it’s not really about you is it?” She didn’t say this rudely, but I know exactly what she’s talking about.
“No, it’s not…” I looked out the window at the blurs of trees going by. “But will he ever completely forgive Bruce for not…avenging him?”
“I think he forgave Bruce a long time ago. But now I think he’s either too proud or scared to just admit that and move on.” Steph is right.
“I think so, too.” I played with my industrial bar. “Do you think there’s anything I could do to help?”

Steph leaned one arm against the car window. “I really don’t know.” She turned her head to me. “Does he ever talk to you about it all?”
I lowered my eyes. “Sometimes. But I feel like he leaves things out.” I decided to start being more truthful. “I can’t complain too much, since I leave a lot of things out, too.”
“We know.” She smiled softly, almost in pity.
“I know y’all know. Tim told me. But some things are better left unsaid.” I returned my gaze to the window. “Some things don’t need to be talked about.”
“Lydia?”
“Mmm?” It was a rumbling in my throat, more than an actual reply.
“In the family, we all have things we don’t wanna talk about. You understand that, right?”
“Yes,” I said slowly. “But I hate that everybody knows this I didn’t really want them to know.”
Steph doesn’t say anything else, and we finally pulled up to the apartment.
I tried to lighten things up.
“Thanks, pookie! I’ll see ya tonight.” I started gathering my bag and phone out of her car. “We all need to have a debriefing or something, but like in a fun way.”
“You got it.” She laughed. “But I want burgers, we’ve had sushi too much.”
“Deal.”
“Okey, bye!”
“Bye, Lydia.”

I watched her drive away, and then immediately tried calling Jason. Where is he?
On the second try, he answered.
“Where the heck are you?”
“I’m out. I’ll be back tonight.”
“Ughhhh, fine but you can’t keep doing that if we’re gonna make this work.” I wrangling myself and my leg through the hallways of the building.
“I got you a gift.”
“A wha-?” I jangled the keys trying to get in the door.
“A gift. You’re home already?”
“Yeah, I got Steph to drop me off since they were whining about me taking the car.” I finally opened the door. The glass from the broken window had already been cleaned and replaced from that night.
“Jay?” I said overly-calmly.
“Yeah?”
“What’s this?”
In a small cage, in the living room, there was a giant brown rabbit. I don’t know if you know anything about rabbits, but continentals and Flemish giants are very, very big rabbits.
“It’s the gift. His name’s Matisse.”
I made my way over to the ‘gift’ and took him out of the cage.
“You got me..a giant rabbit..named Matisse?” Matisse is my favorite painter ever, in case I didn’t mention that already.
“Yes.”
I petted Matisse, reluctantly happy about this.
“And Matisse is supposed to be an apology?”
“Yes.”
“What about Plushy? And where’s Roy?” I asked exasperatedly, still carrying Matisse.
“Roy is with me, Plushy is with you.”
“Ok, totally not ominous.”
“They’re both fine.” I hear some crashing sounds in the background of the call.
“Are they? I hope y’all aren’t out on another mission already. We haven’t even recovered from the last one yet.”
“Yeah, just,” he grunts this out, sounds like he’s in a bind. “Taking care of some business.”
I tried to lay down the law. “Ok, well the business better be done by 11:00. We’re going to hang out at Bruce’s tonight and I’m gonna need a better apology than Matisse.” I paused, glancing at Matisse. “But I do really like Matisse.”
I play with Matisse’s ears while listening to Jason.
“I can’t go back. Why don’t we just stay home tonight?” More crashing sounds.
“No,” I said firmly. “We all need to talk about everything. And I’d honestly feel better staying there tonight anyways.”
“Why?” Gunshots.
“What are y’all doing?” I said sharply. “Tell Roy if either one of y’all get shot, I’m killing him first.” I lower my eyebrows, annoyed. “I’m going to Bruce’s tonight. Meet you there or not. And you better not be driving wild on that damn bike I’ve seen way too many accidents on those things.” I hung up promptly.

Finally, I can get an ounce of peace.
“Awwww, Matisse!” I swirl him around in the living room. “You’re gonna love your brother Plushy! He’s a little obese, like you, but he’s nice.”
I open the bedroom to find Plushy nicely put away in his cage. You see, with rabbits, bonding them takes some time, so it’s best for me to leave them separated for now.
I take my braid out and start running some hot water. I think the dressings should be able to come off for a little while. The injuries might already be healed up anyways.
I walk around the house naked, since I forgot to throw the bloody clothes in the washer. Jay usually does his own laundry, and I do mine. I like it that way. We cook for each other but only if we want to, and if not it’s no big deal.
I stuff the clothes down into the washer and return to the bathroom. The wounds, apart from my neck, are almost already healed. I feel pleased with myself. Stress is so, so damaging. Now that I got the Court off my back, I can finally start worrying about the other cases we’re investigating. But not yet. For now, I need some peace and quiet.
“Matisse, poor Matisse!” Why have kids, when you can have bunnies and horses?
I flatten him out on a towel, while I take out all my skincare supplies.
“Poor baby! How long did he just leave you in a cage for?” Matisse says nothing. Bunnies often don’t say anything, but they know.
I washed my face and showered while he hopped around in the bathroom. It was so, so nice just to take care of myself for once. Alone.
I put on one of my favorite crushed velvet dusters, an old-lady thing you might say, but I don’t care. It’s cozy and luxurious, and I love it.
I decided that I would blast music and clean, while I thought about things. I organized all my jewelry, cleaned out some clothes, and vacuumed. I usually don’t like to vacuum, but nobody’s done it in a while.
I found another one of my favorite necklaces while cleaning out. It’s another gold link type of necklace, but set in with rubies. I really like it. I think Jason got it for me.
Our room looks perfect by the time I’m done. I take a long break to watch one of my favorite movies, ‘Coraline’. It’s a good movie. It’s horrifyingly sad, but that’s why I like it.
Once I finished with that, I checked my phone to find 56 missed messages on the main group chat.
Half of it was memes and videos sent by Tim and Duke. Geez, at least there’s no emergency.

They also changed the group chat about ten times.
I absentmindedly scrolled through, coming across ‘Batman’s minions’ to ‘Father’s unworthy servants’ and my personal favorite- ‘Everybody here failed therapy’.
I eventually scrolled to a section that said Dick is bringing food at 8:00.
I glanced at the time, it’s only 6:36 now.
Mmmm..

I texted ‘can we get ice cream too?”
Everybody chimed in with a flurry of emojis.
I wallowed around for a little while longer, but eventually I made myself start getting ready.
I changed out the industrial to a bar with a tiny gold chain on it, and swapped out my earring stacks to peacock-colored studs. I’m not sure if you can tell, but I really, really like dressing myself up.
I put on some lightweight linen pants and a baby tee with my usual boots. The fabric doesn’t upset the thigh cut, so I’m happy with that.
My neck still doesn’t look amazing, so I leave my hair down. It’s usual waves flutter around my face as I rush around the house.
I lock up the house tight, making sure the patio glass door is locked as well. Not like that would stop the Court, but it makes me feel safer about Plush and Matisse.
“Bye, my lovies!” I left them some bananas, and then I left for Bruce’s. And yes, I did forget that my car is still at Bruce’s. Someone must have gone to get it from that hotel, and then dropped it off. I’m very surprised it didn’t get broken into, that hotel was sketchy as hell.
I waited for Steph to pick me up, holding my vibrantly blue umbrella above myself with the good arm.
“Hola!” I said, scrambling into the car when she pulled up.
“Hola, and why didn’t you tell me you were waiting out here in the rain?” She pushed my arm playfully. “I was gonna go in and get you.”
“Awww, my hero.” I clutched my necklace dramatically.

On the drive back, I told her about Matisse and that whole incident.
“So he got you a literal giant rabbit to make up for the whole attempted kidnapping thing?” Steph was unamused. “Also I wanna see the baby when I drop you back off.”
“Ok,” I smiled, and then continued with my rant. “But yep. Like entirely. And so I was like well I’m going to Bruce’s, whether you show up or not.”
“Then what did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything because I hung up.” We both giggled at this. “I mean, in my defense- I really needed like three seconds to myself. Plus, I told him Matisse doesn’t equal a real apology.”

She changed lanes. “No, but he’s still cute I bet.”
“No, he totally is.” I pulled out my phone to show her pictures of Matisse eating his bananas. “But still; the way I see it, we need to have a real discussion instead of just glossing over stuff.”
“A hundred percent. I don’t know how you’re so good with relationship stuff,” she sighed. “I’m nothing like that.”
I nearly cackled at this, incredulous. “No way you think I’m the one good at relationships.”
“Yes! Girl, like you have such good advice but then you won’t take your own advice.”
I paused, cocking my head. “I thought everybody did that?”
“No, Lydia, not everyone does that.”
“Ughhhh…” I fake-whined.
“But also, I meant to tell you: you look really good.”
“Awww, thanks pookie, I’m blushing.”
“No, I mean it. Like before the whole thought-you-were-gonna-be-executing thing, you looked really bad.”
“Wow, thanks.”
“Like dark circles and body and-“
“Ok, ok- I get it.” I blew out smoke. “And I’m not bony.”
“Well not anymore.”
“Dude!”
“What?” She asked playfully.
“It hasn’t even been like two days, there’s no way my actual body would have changed that much. Plus I’m built, not bony. I mean have you seen my abs and stuff?”
“Ok, Dick.”
I made a noise indicating ‘the audacity’. “Ok, now I’m offended.”

We chattered loudly and listened to music for almost the entire ride there. Steph is a breath of fresh air. I’m happy to have her and Cass.
Finally we arrive to the Manor, and it’s time to have the debriefing. And the burgers and ice cream, more importantly.

Chapter Text

We all piled up in one of the lounge rooms, loading down our plates with pizza and snacks. We got burgers as well, because half of us eat pizza every night.
I wedged a pillow under my leg and squashed myself between Steph and the arm of the couch.
“So is Jason on the way?” Duke started mowing down his pizza. All of us love to eat, I see.
“I don’t think so…” I said between bites. “But I was gonna update him when I get home.” A short awkward silence followed, that I didn’t like. Oo, I know a good conversation starter.
“He got me a new bunny.”
“You have a rabbit?” Damian was cutting pizza with a fork and knife. And he had the audacity to call me the psycho.
“Well now I have two.”
“Mm, let’s cut to the chase-“ It was Dick. “So you and Bruce had planned the whole time to take down the Court? But didn’t think to maybe inform all the rest of us?”
“Oh, no-no, that’s not what happened.” I said, flustered. “We just came up with than plan once we found each other in the maze.” I instantly remembered something. “Wait, did you guys go in the maze or no?”
“No?”
“No.”
Others shook their heads.
“Huh.”
“What?”
“Nothin, I just had like a whole conversation with Tim while I was in there.” I finished the rest of my burger.
“So like in the maze you hallucinated?”
Steph asked interestedly.
“Yeah..it’s the drugs in the water. I think Bruce already knew about those anyway, but it’s like you feel compelled to drink it.”
“Damn…”
“Yeah, that sounds terrible.”
“It is.” I glance to Dick, hoping he’ll take over the conversation.
“Anyways,” he inhales, taking my cue-thank god. “Now case two is closed, for now, we still have the other three.”
“Who put you in charge, Grayson?” Damian said this aggressively, but was still cutting the pizza with precision. “Don’t you have your own entire city to run?”
“Are you being for real?” Duke nudged Damian while the rest of us waited for Dick’s reply.
“Nobody ‘put’ me in charge, but unless somebody else wants to step up-“ he waited for someone to respond, but no one did. “Then I’m gonna be staying here helping with the cases. Blüdhaven will be fine without me for a few more days..”
“We’re going to have to change up the teams.” Tim’s still eating. I wondered actually who helped him get all the way from the cave to the lounge.
“Why? Just let Damian and Bruce keep working on case one, then all the rest of us can deal with case three and four.” Dick didn’t see the issue, and I didn’t either.

“That’ll be too disorganized.” Tim whined.
“How so?”
“Well, for one we don’t even know if Jason is participating or not, and two-“

“He’s obviously not participating if he’s not here.” Damian glared at me from across the room.
“Let’s not worry about him.” I tried to merge how I talk to them and how I talk at work. “What we need to do is find Scarecrow and Slade. They might have already found out we’re onto them by now.”
“If they did it would be your fault.”
I raised my eyebrows at Damian. “The informant wasn’t gonna say anything, trust me. But, now that you say it, I am worried they might have found out he told…” I brushed my hand against my neck, instantly pulling away.

“The informant?” I forgot that I told tell Dick almost anything.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. He’s some guy named Willoughby, paid his way out of jail and now he’s working with Scarecrow.”
“Didn’t you say Slade was hiding out in the asylum?” Duke sipped his drink.
“Yeah, that’s what Willoughby implied. But I was gonna go there and find out myself, before the whole Court thing happened.”
“Yeah, well no more going off by yourself without telling us.” Dick said. I think he’s got the wrong idea about what this is.
“Says who?” My eyes flicker toward him. “I’m an adult, and I’m choosing to help…whatever the cause is here. If that’s a problem; I can continue with my own private investigation.” I turned to face everyone else. “Point is- we gotta catch them before they do whatever it is they’re planning next.”

“Hmmm…should we stake it out to see what the situation is?” Tim shifted to the edge of his seat.
“You’re not staking anything out until you’re all better.” I took a sip of my own drink to express finality.
“Well neither are you.”
“Hey,” I said smugly, leaning my head on my hand. “My shit’s almost completely healed up. I’ll be down for a stake-out by tomorrow.”
“Nobody is down for a stake-out until I say so.” Dick got up abruptly. “And nobody makes any moves until we all communicate first, got it?”
I glanced to Steph and smoke billowed lightly from me.
“Sure.” I didn’t take my eyes off him.
“Fine.” Steph said.
“Ok.”
Everyone agreed, and then we came up with a better plan.
Once ‘everybody’ is ready, we’ll essentially do a raid on the asylum and see if Slade is still there, while team 2 will raid Scarecrow’s lab. My job is to make sure if Jason doesn’t join one of the teams, he’ll quote ‘stay out of the way’. A quote from Dick, I’ll add. Not my idea at all.
Then after that, we can continue our investigation on case four, while Damian and Bruce continue case one.
Seems fair to me.

I stopped Cass on the way out.
“Hey, you didn’t say much the whole time.”
“I usually don’t.”
I brushed by her as we stood side by side. “Yeah, but still. What’s your opinion on the whole thing?”
We watch Steph argue with Tim and Damian in the other room.
“I think let’s go with Dick’s plan, and then rain hell down on them for what they did to us.” Her eyes went from Damian to Steph.
“That sounds like a perfect plan.”
“Are you coming with me and Steph tomorrow?”
I paused, trying to remember what was tomorrow.
“Ohhh, to the movies?”
“Yes.”
“Yep, I’ll be there. But only if y’all come with me to my tattoo appointment Friday.”
“Deal.”
“Bye, Cass.”
“Goodbye, Lydia.”
I waved to her and headed out, play-flirting with Steph on the way.

Steph tried to stop me from driving my car, but I escaped just in time. Ahhh, this is nice. I blasted music all the way home.
Y’know, I should probably see Dinah again. She’s nice, and I have a lot to update her on.

Nobody was home, still. Hmmm. I try not to let it bother me. I won’t text them until 11:30.
I dance around with Plushy and Matisse a little longer. They like Maroon 5, I prefer Ethel.
They finally got home a little after 11. I was in mid-swirl with Plush and Matisse.

“Hey, Liddie.”
“Hey.”

I shifted Matisse in my arms, he’s almost too much for me to carry already.
“Hey.” I lifted my eyes to Jay and waited expectantly.
“So you like him?” He said awkwardly. Roy made a bee-line for the couch.
“Yes..” I turned to Roy. “What are we rating this tribute on a scale of one to ten?” I stretched Matisse out all the way; like I’ve heard men do with fish.
Roy gawked at the size of Matisse. “Is a ten the wrong thing to say?”
“No.” I played with Matisse’s ears. “He’s definitely a ten I think. Minus three points for leaving me at Bruce’s and then staying gone the whole day.” My head snapped up to Jay.

He nodded for Roy to leave.
“I’m just gonna step out..” He went out on the patio and closed the door. It’s definitely awkward with three of us living here, but we gotta make it work.

I limped my way to the bedroom, a little stronger this time, with Matisse and Plushy. Jason followed.
I flicked on the usual candles and incense, as I put the bunnies away.
I am careful this time not to turn my back to him. I can’t take any more chances, and what happened reawakened some things more than I’d like to admit.
“So how was today?” I glance down at his hands, which are bloodied and bruised. “Do you want some ice?”
“Why are you still associating with them?” He said suddenly. His voice was sad, and I don’t understand.
“What?”
“After what he did…”
“Jay, he didn’t leave me up there. We fought together until I couldn’t last anymore.” I walked up to him carefully. “I’m gonna keep working with them. They’re my friends. They make mistakes just like we both do.”
“You call what he did to me a ‘mistake’?”
“No,” I said sharply. “But that’s between you and him from years ago. He should have killed Joker, yes. And he chose not to, so that’s his problem now. But you chose to do what you did to me, so nobody in any situation is completely innocent.” I said coldly.
“But I trusted him with-“ he started, gripping the dresser.
“I trusted you.” I cut him off, probably harsher than I should have been.
“What’s between you and Bruce isn’t my business. You know I support you, but Bruce has done too much for me, for me to just cut him and everybody else off.”

“You could have died!” He stepped forward, I stepped back.
“But I didn’t!” I yelled angrily back. “It was my duty to die in the first place, but I didn’t. Problem solved, now we move on to the next one.”
“Fine…but I can’t go back right now..” He said, almost weakly.
I exhaled smoke. “I’m not asking you to go back. I’m just asking you to respect my own decisions.” I pushed my body closer to his, leaning off the bad thigh.
“Ok.” I felt his breath on my hair, blowing the small strands away from my face.
“Ok.” I blinked, brushing against him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” The sadness in his eyes had faded a little. I intend to erase it completely, at least for tonight.
“Steph said I was bony, today.”
He half-laughed. “Bony?”
“Apparently so.” I glanced at my arms. “I don’t know, maybe I should ask her to arm wrestle and then see what she thinks.”
“You’d have to let her win.” His eyes flicked down and up. I decided to proceed.
“You think Roy will be ok on the patio for a few minutes?”
He smiled faintly. “Guess we’ll find out.”
I started taking off his clothes, slowly yet hungrily. Some things need to be savored, and this is one of them.
We got halfway naked, and then I stopped him purposefully.
“Y’know..I still need some sort of tribute for what happened. Other than Matisse.” To my pleasure, he slowly lowered himself to his knees. Oh, yes- the perfect tribute: himself.
“Is this what you want?”
“Yes. Exactly what I wanted.” I ran my hands through his hair and they made their way down to his neck.
The bathroom light reflected off us, and I could see every scar and curve of him. It was glorious. It always is.
“I’ll give you whatever you want.” His arm curved around my leg, drawing me in closer.
“I want you.” I pressed my hand on his neck a little harder. And yes, I do know how to make someone lose consciousness. All you have to do is cut off the blood supply in the arteries as best you can. Takes a lot of effort, but I can do it. I won’t do it now, though. That’s not what I want. I only want to dominate, not hurt.
“Mmm, my Lydia.” His hand moved to my thigh, as if remembering each one of my tattoos down there.

I started leading him to the bed, not taking my eyes or hand off him.
“I really am sorry..for everything. I just want you to be safe. I never wanted to hurt you.”
I blinked at him slowly, giving nothing away. The bed creaked as both our weights began to sink into it.
I twisted suddenly, placing him closest to the bed instead of me. I pushed my knee into his hip, sitting him down.
“I understand.” I begin to sit, wrapping my legs around his waist. I glanced to my leg. “Mm, imagine that- it doesn’t hurt anymore.” His eyelashes fluttered as I lean in, trying to kiss every inch of him. It’s tradition, you see.
“Ly-“
“Shh.” I continue to kiss him, gripping his thigh softly. As if he’s going anywhere- doubtful. “‘You kiss by the book.’” The man goes nuts for Shakespeare, and I know this well.
“Did you just quote ‘Romeo and Juliet’?” He asked breathily.
“Uhh, yeah-“ I couldn’t help but giggle as he pulled me toward him. Seems like my plans have changed.
“You’re a lucky man, Y’know?”
“Yes I am.”
I gasp as he rams his body into mine.
“Jesus, where’s your patience?” I choke out.
“Sorry-“ he slowed down some, his thumb running over my pelvic bone.
We fucked, and we fucked well.
So we’ll, we almost forgot about Roy. I was half-asleep before I remembered.
“Shit!” I elbowed him softly. “We forgot about Roy.”
He groaned and put a hand over his face.
“This is gonna be humiliating.”
“Yep. I’ll go with you.” I grabbed his hand, and off we went.

We trudged to the patio and Jason waved Roy in.
“So how’d the talk go?” He said as he closed the door behind him.
“Damn it, Roy.” Jason gave him a ‘piss off’ look and I turned away to keep from laughing. “The discussion was fine.” I said stiffly. Sadly, I was wearing Jay’s pants. And they are a lot too big.
“Umm, Lydia?”
“What?”
“Are those Jaybird’s pants?”
“Yep.”
“I can tell.”
“Shut up.”
I hear Jason and Roy either play-fighting or actually fighting, so I decide to head back to the room.
I sleep with my feet on the headboard that night, laying my head on one arm. It feels better on my injuries somehow. Maybe gravity or something.

A few days later, I went with Steph and Cass to get my tattoo all fixed up. And we saw the movie, but none of us thought it was any good.

“That main girl was just such a drag.” Steph had said as we ate.
“No emotions almost at all.” Cass agreed.
Later, we had a ‘boys’ talk. Yes, we’re all college-age girls. And yes, we still talk about sex like middle-schoolers.
“So like..is it kinky if we did it but there was somebody else home?”
“Lydia!” Steph making a puking sound.
“Dude, like really. I mean me and my ex had our own things but I’ve never done it with somebody else home.”
“I mean…,” Steph hesitated to ask. “Was the other person..involved?”
“Oh, no, not involved.” I wouldn’t mind getting other people involved, but that seems chaotic. And weird. “But like outside on the patio.”
“Ughhh, that’s so gross.”
“Sorry!”
“No, not you- Jason.” She made another puking sound. “But isn’t that like exhibitionism or something?”
“I thought exhibitionism was like going to malls and bangin’ in public.”
“Hmm, maybe it is…”
We kept eating our sushi, and I shared some fried rice with Cass.
“So what’s your dream place to do it?” Steph asked, almost excitedly.
“Pffttt..I don’t know honestly.” I thought about it for a while. Because real sex is nothing like what’s portrayed in videos and tv. “Ooo, y’know what? I bet in Paris would be fun.”
“That’s so basic!” Steph said playfully.
“Wait, ok- I have a better one. What about in an art museum, but after hours?”
“Ok, you’re totally into that weird exhibitionism stuff.”
“No way.” I poked her with a chopstick. “I would never feel comfortable doing anything in front of people that’s weird as hell.”
Cass smirked. “You know who’s into that kind of thing?”
Me and Steph leaned in, all serious now.
“Who?” We asked simultaneously.
“Bruce.” She whispered.
We erupted into a mix of laughter and horrified noises.
“Don’t tell me that, you’ll scar me for life.”
“I’m serious,” she said. “Me and Tim came across him and Selina on a roof one time…”
“Wait, wait, wait-“ everything changed when I heard the name. Maybe just a coincidence? “Selina?”
“Yeah?” Steph said confusedly, still eating her sushi.
“That’s gotta be a coincidence.” I moved the fried rice around on the plate. “Does she have a lot of cats?”
Steph leaned in closer. “Well no shit, she’s Catwoman.”
It really is her.
“Can we go see her, tonight?” I glance at both of them seriously. “Please.”
Steph and Cass glanced at each other.
“Lydia, her and Bruce are always off and on. Now is one of their..off times.”
“Ok.” I said. “But I at least wanna go see her by myself.”
Steph gave a frustrated look to Cass.
“Ok, well come with you. We might even run into her on patrol tonight, if you wanna come.”
“Yeah, perfect. I’ll be there.”

Chapter Text

That night we found her. We suited up, stopped a few robberies and small crimes, but then we found her.
Steph and Cass had kind of filled me in on what she does these days. Sometimes she steals, sometimes not. I’m ok with that, it’s not my business.
She was running along a roof when we all caught up to her on the south side.
“Hey, girls!” She twisted gracefully onto the next building. “Out this late on a school night? And who’s your friend?”
“We’re in college,” Steph rolled her eyes. “You literally know that.”
I caught up to Selina, stopping right before her.
“Everybody looks better in the dark, huh?” She gazed at me, almost seductively. Probably thinks I’m a man, due to the outfit. But I instantly connect her reference to ‘TV girl’.
I took off my mask and threw it aside. My eyes were already watering.
“Kitty?” We stared at each other in the moonlight. “It’s been so long…”
“Lydia? Is that you?”
I ran up to her and hugged her before I could stop myself. Cass and Steph exchanged confused glances.
I couldn’t help but cry in her arms. “Did you ever look for me?” I looked up at her desperately.
“For years I looked for you.” We sat down on the roof. “What happened? Have you been in Gotham the whole time?”
I told her the whole story. That I had been kidnapped by the Court after that night. And I wanted to come home, but I couldn’t. Even after they let me go, when I had to make the deal with Penguin. It wasn’t fair, it truly wasn’t.
“I missed you so much.” She brushed through my hair as we kept hugging each other.
“I missed you too, Kitty.” I cried. Kitty was her code name in the days we lived together. It was used for us in case we ever felt like we were in a dangerous situation, but I always called her it anyways.
“You never told Bruce about me?” I sniffed, reaching for my mask again.
“No,” she said quietly. “He’s been through enough, and I thought you weren’t coming back..”
I gave a small laugh. “I thought I wasn’t coming back either..”
We talked for a long longer, up on the roof by the moon. Cass and Steph joined us as well. We talked about how me and Selina used to live together, and how we both ‘worked’ for the Lounge. I reminisced about all the other cats she used to have. She says most of the ones she had when I was there are gone now, but there’s still two that are alive.
It’s starting to get too late. I sniff one final time and help her up.
“Bye! Can we hang out again?”
“Of course we can.” She hugged me one last time. “Just call me ok. They can give you my number. You’re always free to stay with me again.”
We all waved to each other as she left us in the night.
I turned to them once she was gone. “Sorry that was a little dramatic.” I put my mask back on and adjusted my belt.
“It’s ok.” Steph said. “We would have told you a long time ago, we just didn’t realize…”
“It’s ok. It was just a misunderstanding. I’ve known about Catwoman for a long time, I just didn’t realize it was her.”
We had actually almost brushed paths one time, I was busy tracking a lead down and saw her in the window of somebody’s penthouse. I just didn’t ask questions then.

The next day I trained with Duke. I thought it would be extra-fun if we were allowed to use our abilities.
Problem is fire vs. light and shadow…doesn’t really work. He could also see where I was gonna move, and I could already plan how to counteract him each time. But I found out talking with him that he actually has a healing factor, too. That’s one less kid I gotta worry about, so I’m happy for it.
He says that my heat aura is very bright, that’s why he can know so easily where I’m about to move.
By the end of the training, we’re both on the ground chugging water.
“Maybe we should train without using are abilities, huh?”
“Probably so.” Duke sipped more water, slowing down a little.
“You want me to teach you some stuff from the Court?”
“Oh, yeah sure.” He got up, and so did I.
We faced each other, and I began my snake-like movements. I’m not sure if the whole heat-tracing thing is something he can turn off, but I’m hoping to at least confuse him if not.

I ran at him suddenly, and he went to block me, I think assuming I would be upright. I dropped down to my knees and rolled around him, coming up abruptly to grab his neck and take us to the ground.
We struggle on the ground for a little bit, rolling but I eventually trick him into loosening up his right arm. I lock around it, flipping both of us so in the one behind.
Per my nursing skills, I twist one arm and lift firmly up.
“Give up yet?”
“Uhhh,” he grunts. “I’m considering it.” He’s strong, so I use both arms on his one, pinning his other arm with my leg. It’s an awkward position, but I don’t care if I win.
I wait for his decision, pushing the arm further up and the wrong way.
“Ok. You won this round.”
“Alright.” I release him and we get up.

“Got time for one more?” Tim comes down the stairs, taking his time.

I take another sip of water. “Are you sure you feel better? I would hate to rip any stitches open..”
Tim stretched his arms above his head. “If so can’t you just fix it?”
I snorted, tossing the water aside. “Yeah I guess.”
He picks up one of the practice pole-things, the ones I don’t like.
“I’m good.” I toss it back to him and he stands there still. “I don’t like using those.” I smile at him, ready to go. I got this with my bare hands.
We line up, and I can see him already trying to figure out where my center of gravity is. I would say it’s in my hips, but I try to distract him by shifting weight on each foot.
My knees pop, but I’m not surprised. My joints just kind of do that sometimes. I think it has something to do with how many bone and joint injuries I’ve ever had.
Tim begins first, swinging the pole towards my left side. I dodge once, and continue circling. This is gonna be a little harder since he has a weapon and Duke did not.
I glance over to Duke, he’s watching us from one of the stairs. As soon as my eyes turn back, I realize Tim has rushed at me again. My fingers brush against the staff as I dodge, but now I’m on the ground. I sweep my legs around to knock him down, but I miss.
I get up quickly and we continue to circle. I decide the best plan of action, and execute it quickly: a swift kick in the chest as I try to pull the staff away from him. I succeed with the kick, not so much with the confiscation of the staff.
But I do pull him to the ground with me, and that’s better than nothing.
Problem is, I accidentally pulled him on top of me, and the staff goes flying somewhere above my head. I quickly knee him in the side to throw him off and twist to get the staff.
“That’s mine..” he grabs my foot and I kick back, almost reaching for the staff…
“Oh, screw this-“ I swing my foot around, kicking the staff further out of reach.
I try to swoop around his neck, like I did with Duke but he blocks it. Ok, time to get more harsh. I kick one leg from under him as he lands a blow on my shoulder. I swing one arm under his and shove him down, trying to remember how I usually take Jason down. Oh, right-I don’t.
Best I can do is sit almost sideways on his chest, pressing my shin up against his neck and blocking his arms the best I can. Maybe not professional in training, but I’ll do what it takes.
My lip twitches involuntarily as I struggle to keep him down. The more I push my leg, the more he pushes against it.
“How many seconds left?” I call to Duke.
“Just one…..and the one is gone!” Duke laughs as we get up. “Woah that was tragic to watch.”
I get off Tim, but apparently he’s offended. I think it’s funny.
“Sorry…”
“Don’t be-“
“It’s just cause I weigh more..”
“I’ll get my revenge.” He steals Duke’s water.
I glance to Duke and throw up my hands. “If you say so.”
I get a sudden call from…Alfred?
“Hello?”
“Miss Lydia, would you be willing to come take a look at Master Bruce-“
“Yes.” I interrupted him. “How many days has it been?” I started counting in my head. Ehhh, I think five days-not great if he does have something broken. “Ok, I’m on the way right now.”
Alfred meets me in the main hall and we head to Bruce’s room. I don’t know if his room is necessarily the biggest in the house, but it is huge. One of the biggest bedrooms I’ve ever seen.
“Bruce?” I knock before I come in, it’s what you’re supposed to do before going in a patient’s room.
“You can come in.”
I enter, leaving Alfred out in the hall.
“Have you been just sitting in here for days?” I make my way over to him.
“No.” He says shortly. I don’t know whether to believe him or not.
Alfred has propped up his ankle on a few pillows, but it’s obviously broken. I can tell. The other one doesn’t look so good either.
“You wanna come to the cave so I can X-ray this?” I half-point to it. “All my stuff is down there anyways.”
I instantly remember the stairs. “Wait, nevermi-“
“Let’s go.” The man fucking gets up and walks. Walks, I tell you. Barely a limp at all.
“Uhh, I’m gonna go get Alfred.” I beat him to his own door and rush out. Thankfully Alfred is still on the same hall.
“Hey, could you possibly help me for a sec?”
“Yes.” Alfred returns, but Bruce is already halfway down the hall by the time I turn around.
“Can you please not walk on it?” I call after him as I catch up. I thought to bring up Selina, but decide not to. I remember what Stephanie said about them being off and on.

We get to the Cave, miraculously. Don’t ask me how the man got down the stairs, I really don’t know.
Tim and Duke are still down there practicing when we arrive.
I get out the brand new X-ray machine and get some X-rays of the ankle. Obviously, I’m not an X-ray tech, but when I say the ankle was broken- I mean to the point that I could easily see where the line was. It’s a comminuted ankle fracture, very obviously.
My eyes are widened as I try to be triple sure, zooming in on it and looking at each bone fragment.
“Bruce,” I say this like a mother who’s found a broken vase or something. “You’ve been just walking around like this for days?”
“I’ve been trying to stay off it.”
My jaw is essentially on the floor, just so you get the picture. “Umm..ok..ok. Let’s get one more of the other one.” The other ankle has a small hairline fracture as well. Shit. I move the print outs further and closer to be completely sure.
“Ok,” I choked out. “Well walking on them definitely hasn’t helped.” I turned to them all. “The right one is basically completely smashed, and the left one has a hairline.” Nobody says anything, so I add on to my statement. “I’m not a surgeon, so I’m not gonna be able to help with this one.”
“Why? We have all the supplies here.”
“Bruce,” I put my hands over my eyes. “You cannot be serious..”
I look to Tim for help. He does not help. Duke stares at Bruce concernedly, and Alfred assesses the X-rays for himself.

“Alfred has surgical experience.”
“Bruce, literally no.” I put one hand on my hip. “Look I have a friend that’s an ortho surgeon, he could do it under the table.” I glance back at the X-rays, wincing just imagining it. “Just tell him you got drunk or something and fell down the stairs.”
I pull out my phone and get pictures of the very tragic, very bad X-rays. “Look, I don’t even care, I’m calling him now and we can take you tonight or something.” I turn away from them to call my friend, as Alfred tries to convince Bruce.

“Hey Griff. Can you do me a favor?”

Alfred and I drive Bruce home after the surgery. Thankfully, my friend Griffin was able to do it without asking too many questions. He’s good like that. It took a few pins and maneuvering, but he got all the bone fragments back in place. Strict instructions-no walking. Minimum of two weeks, but I’m gonna try to convince Bruce to rest a little longer than that.
I called Dick to let him know what’s up.
“Hey, Bruce is gonna be, um, non-available, for a few weeks. Can you make sure he stays that way?”
“Why, what happened?”
“You know how he jumped down the Drain and then carried me through the entire drain system?”
“Yeah?”
“Well he did all that with two fractured ankles, and one of them is completely smashed.”
“Damnit, Bruce.” I heard frustrated sighing on the other line. “Ok. So you want me to just guard him for now?”
“Yeah. He’s supposed to be non-weight bearing for at least two weeks. I’m not confident we’ll make it through the first week.” I side-eyed Alfred. “He literally walked down the stairs to the cave himself.”
“Yeah, he’s kind of…unhinged like that.”
“Clearly.” I check my nails. They need to be painted again. “Just make sure he doesn’t try to do anything wild, I guess.”
“I’m on it.”
“Thanks, Dick.”
“Bye.”

Tim and Duke came to help us get Bruce inside, then I start charting everything. I have charts on every family member and associate, even one for Bat-woman. I haven’t even met her yet.
I gather up a bag full of supplies and head to Bruce’s room, with Alfred for help.

“Hey Bruce, I came to give you all this stuff.” I unloaded what I had, which was an antibiotic: cefazolin, gabapentin, and oxycodone. Varying dosages for each one, obviously, but I thought they would be helpful. It was all I could think of in the moment.
“I don’t need anything right now.”
“Now, master Bruce-“
“Yes you do,” my eyes flashed. “And I’m calling Dick if you try to argue about it.”
He reluctantly accepted what I had. I hoped it would be enough, but clearly the man hides pain very well. I paused after injecting him with the cefazolin. “I really hope you’re not allergic to any of this stuff.”
In a panic after I calmly left the room, I darted to the computer to look up what medical information I had on Bruce. Ok, allergic to cats and a few other little things, but no allergies to antibiotics. Perfect.

Chapter Text

“Everybody ready?” Dick asked. Half of us were in the Batmobile, and the other half took my car. Some of us answered on the comms.
It was take-down night, but Alfred had been given strict orders to watch Bruce while we headed out. We left Duke and Stephanie to supervise the rest of Gotham, while the rest of us went after Slade and Scarecrow.
“Yeah!”
“Let’s ride.”
I turned on some music quietly as we rolled out. I had tried to blast some before, but got yelled at since it interferes with the comms.
Babs talked to us from her line.
“Does anybody need me to go over the plan?”
I glance to Tim in my passenger’s side.
“I think we’ve got it, thank you.” I adjusted the radio. “We’re going through the west upper tunnels, while Team 1 raids the asylum.” Team 1 consists of Dick, Damian, and technically Babs. Team 2 consists of myself, Tim, and Cass. The stake-out had been successful the night prior, and we got a good idea of the whole situation.

We park my car about a mile away and cross over to West Avenue, the location of the allegedly abandoned lab. It’s obviously not abandoned by the looks of it, Tim and Cass spot some activity as well.
Tim breaks off one of the grates to the upper tunnels on the west side of the building, and we head inside. Babs somehow found the floor plans for the building, and all of us know our positions we need to be in. I head right, Cass left, and Tim straight. There’s also multiple floors to the labs, but our plan was to scope out the same floor separately, and then reconnect to visit the bottom floors.
“Everybody in position?” Dick asks over the comms.
“I am.” I answer.
“Red Robin?”
“Yes.”
“In position.” Cass answered.

I cracked my back while I waited, popping the spine segments all the way down. It’s way too cramped in here. We’re unsure if Scarecrow himself will be here, or at the asylum. Potentially, he could be at neither. We weren’t able to completely assess where either one are since they went underground. ‘Allegedly’ underground, I should say.
I crawl down the vents to find one opening to spy through. Looks like some associates down below are moving crates.
“On 3..”
“2..”
“1…”
I spring out from the vent, leaping onto one of the guy’s shoulders and taking him out with a dart. “Hey!” The other one comes up to me already swinging, which I dodge. He gets popped in the side with two, for good measure. Quick and easy, that’s what I like to be. I hide behind some of the crates to assess the situation since I don’t have all the fancy stuff like everyone else.
“Oracle, are you able to see what’s going on in here?”
“Yeah, you’ve got about four more in front of you.”
“Ok. Got it.” I explode the lights in the room, plunging all of us into darkness.
The ‘four’ in question, are actually five. One girl comes from another room connecting to this one.
I kick a few in the knees harshly, and dart them. One other one gets a hand on me from behind, but I side-step and am able to dart them as well. These people are insanely sloppy and untrained. I would honestly enjoy more of a fight.
The last two have guns I see. Bullets spray around me.
I use my flame trick only on one to scare them, then I’m able to wrangle away the gun from one of them.
“Where’s Scarecrow?” I point his own gun at him and push my foot into his shoulder.
“Bottom floor! Please don’t shoot!”
“Ughhh-“ I hit him in the face with the butt of his gun, tossing the gun beside him when I’m done. What’s in all these crates anyways?
I open them to find a tons of canisters of fear toxin. Whatever they’re planning, it’s big. But, I keep in mind, this could all be a red herring.
I take pictures of some of the containers and send them to Babs. After turning a few corners, I slither down into one of the floor grate systems. That way I can listen in on any conversations with Scarecrow’s guys.
“Any updates, Team 1?” I whispered.
Dick comes over the comms. “We haven’t found Slade yet, but we did find something.”
Ok. Whatever it is, apparently he won’t say over the comms.
“Bat?”
“Still in position. I cleared out the second floor.”
“Red?”
“I’m-“ static. “A little busy.” More static.
Hmmm…
I hear footsteps start thundering toward me overhead. I listen for a few minutes.
“That’s what I’m sayin’, his mom is totally gorgeous…but uh, you seen that new vigilante? Uhhh, uhh- what’s his name- is it Artemis?”
More footsteps.
“No, you idiot. Artemis is a girl’s name.” A brief pause. “The guy’s name is Alchemist I heard. Real dangerous nut job.”
I almost laugh at this, but I gotta hold it in. The last part might be true, but the first part isn’t.
“No way more dangerous than the boss. Speakin’ of the boss, what did he say about these crates?”
“We gotta move them tonight. Every single one.”
“Ughhh, fuck me.”
“Yep.”
They begin to walk away. I reach up through the grate and stab one in the calf. Not ideal, but it’ll work.
“Shit, speak of the devil!” The second, much larger guy aims his gun.
“Speak of the devil.” I repeat. I blew up the inside of the gun, spraying flaming metal onto him. Down he goes screaming, with a dart lodged in his arm. I’m getting low on darts though…
“Everybody good?” I ask, ducking under the floor grate again.
“Yep.”
“Yes.”
“Alright.”
I climb into the vents connecting to the main floor, intersecting with Tim and Cass.
I let my flames ripple around me excitedly. “Ready for the main event?”
“Oh yeah.”

We easily find the main lab section, only downside is it’s got tripwires all around it. They crisscross wildly, making it basically impossible to get to the door of the lab.
Tim deactivates those while Cass and I clear the area around the lab. Multiple guys have contacted their buddies on their own radios, so now a lot of people are flooding toward us.
“Red, you gonna have to wrap this up.”
I duck behind a crate as we’re being shot at. We’re gonna have to be careful with the wires that are still active.
Cass throws a smoke bomb, so I begin tackling and darting people as fast as I can go. I let my flames snake through the group, splitting them up so they’re easier to beat.
I engulf my own hand and throw a few punches. It’s very thrilling, to be honest.
Cass easily takes down her section of associates. She is small yes, but very fast.
Both of us start and end near each other in almost a perfect circle.
“Good job.” We high-five as Tim is still fiddling with the trip-wires closest to the main lab. They could trigger fear toxin, or worse, so we’ll have to be super careful.
“This system is almost…” Tim continues fiddling with the wires. “Too easy…”
“Hmmm..” Cass and I look from him to each other.
“Ok, it should be deactivated now.”
We carefully get to the door. I still don’t touch any wires, just in case.
As we walk around the lab, I take pictures of everything. The guy’s obviously cooking something up, judge by all the…paraphernalia in here.
Cass and Tim prowl around, picking up jars and random items in here. It’s dark, but there’s small flickering lights emanating from some of the machines.
“What do you think they’re planning?” Cass asked Tim.
“Something big…I can’t figure it out yet.” He picked up some papers that were half-stacked in a file.
One flew out and Cass caught it for him. I recognize it as being a floor plan to the asylum.
“Is that…?”
“Yeah.”
We get pictures of all the papers, laying them out on the main table.
“Y’all wanna go ahead and find Scarecrow? He’s allegedly on the bottom floor somewhere.”
“Let’s go.” Cass darted out ahead of us and Tim and I followed.
Tim tried to get updates from Team 1 as we go down some stairs to the bottom floor.
It’s eerily quiet. I suspect we didn’t take out everybody that’s in the building. At least, not yet.
“Team 1, any updates?”
“No, but something’s going on. No sign of Slade or Scarecrow but we found a system underneath the building.”
“What kind of system?” Tim glances to me, while I listen in.
“It’s a tunnel system, Red, obviously.” It’s Damian.
“Yes, but leading to what?” Tim says sharply. There’s more static on the other line.
“You think somebody’s interfering?” A sudden, dull pain in my thigh occurs. Ouch.
“Probably. Our comms usually never act up like this..”
“Babs, we’re going dark for a little bit, ok?” I hope she answers.
“Copy. Team 1 is, too..”
Ok. I don’t think Scarecrow is the type to mess with tech stuff like that, so it’s probably Slade’s doing. But how he’s able to interfere, I don’t know. I’m not very good with the computer and comms stuff, it’s not really my thing.

Cass has already taken out at least six more people by the time we get down there.
“Geez, save some for the rest of us, huh?” I step over one of the associates that was trying to drag themselves away.
“We just had to cut the comms, so now we just need to take down Scarecrow and get out of here.” Tim announces to us.
“Fine, but where is he?” Cass and the rest of us abruptly turn around to the shrill sound of metal scraping on metal.
I instinctively put up a flame circle around us and we head for cover behind one of the metal crates.
“What do we do?” I hiss to Tim. He’s kind of our designated leader, and I’m not about to take any chances with whatever it is that’s coming at us.
Instead of answering, Tim whirls out from behind our cover.
“So, Batman’s still sending his kids to do his dirt work, I see.” I hear one of the katanas whip into the side of the crate. The metal sound must have been from him dragging them down the sides of the crates.
My jaw falls slightly open. Why is Slade here?
Cass and I split the crate, each of us running on either side of it. Tim is trying to fight off Slade, but he’s losing.
“Shit!” Cass is able to lock herself around his neck, while Tim and I go for the lower half and the swords. I agreed I wouldn’t use my flames to cause ‘maximum damage’ whatever that means, so I only engulf three of his fingers to make him drop at least one of the katanas.
“It’s you!” Slade yells, dropping the singular katana. I instantly cease the flames. He’ll have at least second degree burns, but that’s not my problem.
I twist and grab his other hand, shoving my back towards him. Tim slams into Slade with force, and Cass pretty elegantly jumps off him as he falls.
We get him to the ground, Tim rolling off and choking him with the staff. Those staffs are death-poles, nobody can convince me otherwise.
“Where’s Scarecrow?” Oh, I see Tim can be aggressive when he wants to after all.
“I’m not talkin-“ he attempts to spit in Tim’s face, and I promptly slap him.
“You’re really asking to lose some more fingers.” I press my knee further between the shoulder joint, Cass is on the other arm, and we’ve got Tim on his chest. What he really needs now is a mega-dose of propofol.
“We’re not asking again,” Tim continues, still wielding the staff. “Where’s Scarecrow? And what was the plan here?”
“Why don’t you ask your friends…” he grunts out. I don’t have the patience for this. The guy’s a total dick.
Tim swiftly takes him out with a blow to the head. I forgot that I kicked Slade like, super hard that time. Probably hasn’t recovered from it completely yet.
Tim brushed some hair from his eyes. “We’re gonna have to go save Team 1.” I got off Slade, giving him a hearty kick in the side. “Are you sure they need saving?”
“I’m gonna go with probably not, but still-“ Cass crossed her arms, but then gestured to Slade. “What’s the plan for him?”
“Oh, I have an idea-“ I said, spotting some crates in the corner. They were wrapped with chains.

“I’m such a good welder,” I said, finishing up fusing the chains together on Slade.
“Didn’t he escape the last time you left him somewhere?” Tim smirked, I’m not amused.
“Shush!” I fused one last chain around Slade’s legs. “That was a one-time thing.” I darted him twice, which I thought is kinda funny. The Alchemist wins, yet again.

“Let’s go, we need to make sure Team 1 is ok.” Cass began going up the stairs again.

Once we leave the building, Tim tries calling Dick from the comms. No answer,only some static.
Tim puts his hands over his head and paces, while Cass and I sit against the wall.
“Here.” I give them both some pieces of gum. I really like a specific brand, and I carry it with me at all times.
“I mean, should we go there and see what’s up? What were they talking about….tunnel systems?” He continues to pace.
“Look, let’s just go and see what the deal is. What’s the worst they can do- be mad?” I shrugged at him.
“Yes.” He says glumly.
I rolled my eyes to Cass. “Ok, well let’s just go check on them anyways. You think it’s safe to use the comms again?”
He thinks for a minute, then calls Babs.
“Hey, are we safe to be back online?”
“Yes. There’s a radio tower near West Avenue, I think somebody was using it to interfere with the signals.” She paused to take a breath. “Any updates on your end? Team 1 says they’re ok, they’re comms just got taken out but they’re fine now. Scarecrow is located in the asylum.”
We all sighed in relief. Ok, well that’s good to know.
“So did they catch him or what?” I asked her.
“No. There’s a tunnel system under the asylum that we weren’t previously aware of.” She said. “Is Slade apprehended?”
“Oh, yeah.” I rotate myself partially to Cass and away from Tim. “But what’s the plan, like is somebody gonna come get him or….?”
“GCPD is on their way.”
“Ok.” I tilt my head to the rest of the group, searching for approval. “Team 1, y’all wanna meet at home and regroup?”
More static, but a reply comes in. “Yeah, we’re on the way.”
“Ok.”

We all meet up at the cave. Damian is a little beat up, but everyone else seems to be fine.
“Got any new info?” Tim asked them as we walked up.
“Yes.” Damian said shortly.
I took my mask off after Cass, clipping mine to my belt.

We had set up a large board in the cave, trying to piece together evidence and link the cases. I used the computer to print off what pictures I took, and then we pinned those to the board, as well.
“So I take it Scarecrow got away?” Tim almost jokingly asked Dick.
“He wouldn’t have, if somebody would have let me-“ Damian glared at Dick from his seat near the computer.
“Damian, stop! It was too dangerous to split up, especially without comms .” Dick for some reason waves his arms around when he’s mad.
“We had it handled from our end.” Cass said firmly, I stood behind her to non-verbally back her up.
“We did.” Tim agreed, glancing to me. “But we found an asylum floor plan in the lab.” He swiftly turned to the board with the pinned pictures. I admire the way he can easily change the subject.
“Did y’all find anything in the asylum besides the tunnels?” I asked, still partially behind Cass.
“No,” Dick sighed and leaned on the computer’s keyboard. “Nobody knew anything..so they say.” He stared up at the computer. “I’m not convinced.”
“I’m not either.” Tim studied some of the pictures on the board. “There’s just no way that nobody in there knows what the tunnels are.”
“Also, why was Slade in Scarecrow’s lab alone?”
“And what are they really planning?”
We continued to ask each other questions, all pondering different possibilities.

“Maybe I should revisit Willoughby..” I said finally. “He seemed to know enough..”
“If you do that, we can visit Slade at the PD.” Tim half-pointed to the pictures of the lab.
I thought about it. “Mmm, I dunno, I kinda wanted to do that.” I glanced to Dick. “Why don’t I hold off on Willoughby and we can all go-“
“We can’t all pile up at the PD.” Dick was still clicking through pictures and files on the computer.
I itched my eyebrow softly. “You’re right. I’ll see what I can find out then, just let me know about Slade.” I adjusted my coat before I left. “The guy’s a total asshole.”
“Hell, yeah he is.” Cass agreed, following me out of the cave.
Before I go, I want to check on Bruce.

“Can I come in?” I knocked shyly on the door. Bruce scares me, but I don’t want anyone to know that. I think he scares everybody, a little.
“Yes.” He calls from the bed. I’m surprised he’s actually still in the bed. But then again, Dick and Alfred are here to watch him.
“Is everything ok?” I scoot up a chair to the bed and sit down. “I brought you some oxy, it’s ten milligrams but we can go up-“
“I don’t need anything.” He continues reading his book, something about war. Or Art. I don’t know, I’ve heard of that one before but it sounds terribly boring.
“Are you sure? What about ibuprofen?”
I asked hopefully.
He half-sighs. “Ok, then.”
I handed him what pills I had. “Thank you.”
“So how did the mission go?” He asked taking a sip of water.
“Ehhh…” I glanced around. “I mean we caught Slade. He’s supposed to be down at the PD by now.”
“And what about Damian?” His eyes raised to mine, I lowered mine instinctively. This is not somebody I wanna be making eye contact with.
“He’s fine…just his usual self.” I tried to change the subject, whatever the subject even was. “Hey, can Alfred make southern food?”
“Did you really just come in here to ask about food?” I thought I saw a hint of amusement in his eyes, but no way I’m asking Batman for food.
“Oh- um no, I was just gonna say if Alfred can cook anything then I’ll pay him for some stuff.”
“Stephanie told me you all went to see Selina a few nights ago, how was that?”

I crossed my legs a different way. “It was ok. Y’know I used to live with her for a while..”
“She never mentioned it to me.”
“Yeah,” I started taking some of the empty pill packages off his nightstand. “She just said she didn’t wanna upset you or something. And she thought I wasn’t coming back..”
“Why don’t you go spend some time with her and catch up?” He set his book aside, still watching me.
“Why don’t you?” Oh, shit- I didn’t mean to say that.
“It’s complicated right now.” He said. Geez, he really doesn’t give anything away, huh?
“Steph and Cass said it’s always like that.” I said in a quieter tone than before.
“Well, they don’t always know.”
I tilted my head. “Seems like they do know….”
He scooted himself up a little, I jumped up to fix the pillows under his ankles. “Well how’s Jason?” Ohh, so I see changing the subject runs in the family.
“He’s ok, I guess. Still mad at you, but everybody says he’s always like that.”
“Jason and I are complicated, as well.”
His tone gives nothing away, but I know the backstory all too well.
“Yeah I know.” I started packing up my stuff. “I just wanted you to know I appreciate what you did during the whole Court thing.” I blinked, “Maybe he is still mad at you, but I’m not. I would be dead if it wasn’t for you.”

He says nothing, and I take this as my cue to leave.
“Lydia?” He called as I was almost to the door.
“Yeah?” I turned my head halfway to him.
“What kind of food is it that you wanted?”
I couldn’t contain my excitement. “I have a list.” My eyes reflected in the lamp’s light. “Tell him I’ll pay him. Really.”
“There’s no need, just text him what you want.”
“Ok,” I said happily. This conversation was really turning around. “Thank you so much! I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow.”
I closed the door and trotted down the hall, I’m very pleased with myself now. I hope I made Bruce feel a little better about the whole incident.
I called Alfred before I left the house, hopefully I wasn’t bothering him too much.
“Hey Alfred, could I potentially pay you to do something?”
“Miss Lydia, I assure you my salary is well above what you th-“
“Ok, ok, but could you?”
A heard a small sigh. I’m sorry, Alfred.
“What is it that you need?”
“Umm, could you cook like a lot of stuff?”
“What’s the occasion?”
“Oh, no occasion- I’m just a fat ass.” There was a bit of a gasp from Alfred so I immediately apologized and then continued my proposal.
“Could you potentially make, umm..like cornbread, chicken and dumplings, corn, apple pie and-“
“Would that be all?” I head noises in the background, I assume it’s either Duke or Damian from the sound of it.
“Mmmm, actually yes I think so. I probably won’t eat all that much now that I think about it.”
“It will be ready by tomorrow.”
“Oh, no, take your time! It’s not an emergency or anything.”
“Goodnight, Miss Lydia.”
“Goodnight,Alfred.”

I get home and start throwing off my clothes at the door. I absolutely do not want whatever was in that lab to be in my apartment.
“Hey, Liddie!”
“Wha-“ I almost trip over my boots.
Roy is helping Jason crawl over the balcony.
“Ummm…I’m not even gonna ask?” I throw my boots aside in our pile. “Are you sure nobody’s gonna see y’all-“
“Pffttt, it’s Gotham-I don’t think anybody’s gonna notice.”

Jason made his way over to me, also tossing their boots in the pile. “How was tonight?”
“Boring, I guess,” I said, kissing him. “We caught Slade but they let Scarecrow get away.”
“Mm?”
“Yeah, it was a total bust.” I swirled around to the fridge to get some water. “Guess what else I had to deal with this week?”
“What?”
“A literal colostomy site that went septic. And the bag almost exploded on me and my friend.”

I chugged water while they gagged in the background. “Oh, and on top of that-“
“No, no more-“ Roy was being very dramatic, rolling around on the couch. I didn’t appreciate it, I have no idea where they’ve been this whole time.
“On top of that- we had to chase down somebody’s psycho grandpa and it took literally six of us to get him back in the bed. And somebody stole my chair, and some drop-head stole all our blankets for the entire unit.”
“Jesus.” Jay laughed. I usually don’t tell them that much about work, but sometimes it’s fun, too.
“Yep. Yelling at all of us actin’ wild.” I took out some cereal from the cabinet. “Some people just need to be euthanized and there’s nothin’ you can do.”
This sent Jason and Roy cackling, which I was happy with. At least; I think I’m funny. It’s probably all the head trauma.
We sat down to eat, this time Roy took the floor and Jason and I took the couch.
“Yep, Jaybird is taking me to rehab tomorrow.” Roy leaned against the chair, instead of sitting in it. He does some things like that, I suspect ADD…
I finished crunching my cereal, looking to Jason in confusion. “You are?”
“Won’t be my first time around, but yeah.”
I let smoke softly billow around all of us. “You know you always have a place here, right?” Jason handed him a soda.
“You’re making me blush, buddy.”
I hide a laugh. “Can you not act stupid for five minutes?”
“Nope, all part of the package.” He’s smiling, but I can sense sadness here.
“But I’ll go, so you can get back to your calf roping with Jaybi-“
Ok, now I can’t help but to burst out laughing. Jason stares at us in confusion. I forgot he’s a city boy.
“Calf roping?” Jason looks at us both confused while we laugh.
“Don’t worry above it, love.” I tell him quietly, then in a rowdier tone:
“Ok, first of all- I don’t do calf roping, I barrel race, and secondly-“ I take a deep exaggerated sigh. “Ok, there is no secondly.”
“Well, why haven’t you taught him to barrel race then?” Roy shoves Jason playfully.
“That’s something I do by myself.” I turn to Jason. “Oh, but I am training Damian a little. Y’know how Bruce got him the TB from off the track? It’s still a complete monster.” I brushed through my hair. “He tried to lunge at Alfred the other day.”
“Damian or the horse?” Roy asked. I pretend to despise him, but I don’t.
“Wait, you’re training Damian?” Jason kept eating.
“Uhh, yeah? Maybe I forgot to mention that, but that was like the whole reason Bruce got him the horse.”
“Uh-huh…” I’m not sure what that tone is about.
“Jay, y’all have your own things you do, and I have mine. Like I pretend not to know that you drive wild on that bike and it drives me nuts.”
“We really should go for a test drive sometime. I can teach you how to drive.”
“Hell no!” I throw a pillow at him. “You and Roy can have the romantic bike rides, I’m not gonna be the one to get in a wreck.”
“But you drive that car fast.”
“That’s different.” I smile at them. We all know it’s not different. “I actually know how to drive.”
“Mmm, debatable.”
“And how so?”
“Didn’t you total it like not even a few months ago?”
“Umm, no- that was Tim and he wasn’t supposed to be driving it to begin with.”

Jason glances down to my newly fixed tattoo, one I’m very happy with. I lift my arm up for him to look at.
“You like it?”
“Yeah, it looks good on you.”
This is nice and all, but Roy as an audience is freaking me out.
“We should all get matching ones.” He stares at us smugly from the floor.
“You already have enough.” Jason rolls his eyes at him.

We bantered for a few more hours then finally my eyes started hurting. I don’t remember my head even hitting the pillow, that’s how you know I slept good.

Chapter Text

“Ok, you ready?” I was on Soda, Damian on Jewel, and Tim in the middle of the arena.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” He calls from the ground.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, winking at Damian before backing up a very excited Soda. “Just try not to move too much.”
“Wait, why can’t you just use real cows again?”
I start swinging the lasso. “Because, me and Damian think calf-ropin’ is unethical. That why we’re using you so we don’t hurt any cows.”
“Oh, ok- makes total sense.”
Little does he know Damian and I set up my phone camera to send the video to Kon. Or just to use it as general blackmail.?
“Ok,” I turned to Damian. “So you set the time as soon as we start running, ok?” Damian nods.

“Ready?”
“I guess.” Tim has already accepted defeat.
I get in position and whistle to Soda. Now, you see- Soda has never been a roper. He’s more of a barrels kind of guy.
Tim runs as we sprint up to him. I toss the lasso around Tim’s waist and snatch it, tying it around the saddle horn. You see, with calves you aim for the foot or the neck, but we can’t do that because it would probably kill him. Or at least, break his foot.
Tim yelps as I jump of Soda, sprinting to Tim and tying three out of four limbs together. Damian calls time after I throw my hands up.
“What’s the time?” I smile excitedly.
“10.8 seconds!” Damian steers Jewel over.
“Yes!” I jump happily. This isn’t an insanely amazing time, but it’s good for somebody that doesn’t do roping usually.
Tim groans from the ground.
“Oops, sorry.” I release him and he drags himself up.
“Good job, Soda.” I pat him proudly. I’ve never wanted kids, but I am Soda’s mother.
Tim ambles to the side panels of the arena in a depressed fashion.
Damian and I continue practicing. Jewel is able to safely canter patterns now, so that’s a huge improvement.

By now, it’s the late evening, since I slept in so late today. I haven’t been sleeping a lot in a long time, so today I slept until 2:00.
Alfred stops me before I go check on Bruce again.
“Miss Lydia?”
“Yeah?” I’m halfway down the carpeted hall. It’s like a castle in here, inside and out. But in a very, um, elegant way, if that makes sense. There’s a lot of gilded stuff in here, and everything has a particular place.
“Master Bruce is already back at it, again.” He sighs apologetically. “But I did find the time to cook that..order you requested.”
“Oh! Ok, thank you so much, Alfred.” I hugged him briefly before hauling ass to the Bat cave.
Bruce and Dick were already there, with coffee.
“What are you doing?” I fly down the stairs, sending flames twirling around me. “There’s no way you’re supposed to be walking yet.”
“Well, here we are.” Bruce sipped his coffee nonchalantly.
I crossed my arms. “That’s not safe and you’re gonna give yourself nerve damage or something.”
“I’ve had worse.” He starts clicking around on the computer while Dick watched with amusement.
“Bruce.” I whined, covering my eyes.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been insistent on the pain meds.” Dick says this like he’s actually helpful.
“Well that’s not gonna do any good if the bones haven’t healed up right.” I let the flames run down my arms in exasperation. I’m not mad at him, but this whole family is insane.

I walk over to my own charting computer as they continue talking.
They stop as (I guess) they noticed me logging in. “Wait, are you serious?” Dick does the hand swinging thing he does again.
“Deadass.” I check the charts. Ok, somebody did actually chart that he’s been getting less than half the meds I wanted him to.
“Huh, ok..” I click out of everything. “So maybe you are legit.”
“I’m always legit.” Dick turns to Bruce.
“What you are is old, and both of you are way too old to be-“
“Hey, hey, hey, I’m not old.”
I raise and drop my eyebrows. “Ehhh…” I wave my hand in a so-so way.
“What?” Dick looks slightly offended.
I don’t recant my statement, but rephrase it. “I mean, you’re the oldest one here. But anyways, my point is both of you are too old to be doing dumb stuff like refusing health care.” I glance to Dick. “Well, or being an accomplice to refusing healthcare.”

“What’s Damian up to?” Bruce is still researching the Slade/Scarecrow case by the looks of it.
“Umm,” I didn’t know if I wanted to say what we’re up to or not. “I mean; we just calf-roped Tim, but other than that I don’t know what they’re doin’’.”
“Ok. If you see him, ask him to come here.”
“Ok?”
I like how nobody asked me exactly why we calf-roped Tim. So I left promptly to find Damian attempting blackmail in the study.
“So you will pick me up Sunday, I presume?” Damian was threateningly holding the phone.
“No, I can’t pick you up at all, I have things to do and-“ uh oh, I’ve been spotted.
“Why can’t she do it?”
I lounge on one of the chairs and crack my back. “Because I’m working Sunday.” The sun seeps throw the giant windows, illuminating all of us.
“So you’re in cahoots?” Tim asked, only half-mad about the video now.
Damian glances at me. “We’re associates for now, yes.”
“Oh, and also- look what you did.” Tim lifts his shirt, revealing a bruise ring around his midsection.
“I’m so sorry!” I jump up off the chair. “I didn’t think I actually pulled that hard.”
I look to him, concerned. “Let’s go to the cave and I can fix it.”
“You know what would make me feel better?”
“What?” I asked seriously.
“Deleting the video.”
I stand up from my bent position. “Oh, not a chance.”
“But also,” I turn to Damian. “Your dad wants you.”
Damian left, still holding the phone, as I dragged Tim down to the cave,as well.

I’ll explain this carefully, so you understand better. The area that I’ve been using as my own hospital is on the lower half-level in the cave, but in its own kind of area around the stairs. I put up some dividers, so the section functions as its own room. I thought this would be better for privacy.
Damian branches off to Bruce and Dick, while I drag Tim to one of the beds.
“I really am fine, I was just kidding.”
“No, cause now I feel bad.”
I handed him an ice pack, that was already starting to melt because I touched it.
“Here’s you some Tylenol.” I handed it to him from the medicine cabinet. This whole thing is probably very illegal, but it’s probably fine.

On the way out the door, I picked up my food from Alfred. I was very pleased with this, and thanked him a lot of times. This was very good tribute.
But once I got in the car, I called Steph so I could give her all kinds of updates.
“Hola, pookie!”
“Hola, pookie.”
“Oo, can you talk now or is this a bad time?”
“Oh- no this is fine, I’m not doing anything. But did you wanna go out tonight? Me and Cass are on duty..”
“Yeah, sure. But does anybody know what the new plan is for case three and four? And one? I haven’t heard any updates in a while..”
Steph paused. “Hmm, I haven’t heard any updates either, now that you say that.”
“Oh also, did I tell you the whole thing that happened at work the other day?”
“No, but I’m already invested.”
“Ok, so I show up to work, right? First of all, we only have five of us that showed up, so I already know it’s gonna be a complete shit show. So to start off, I get a religious psycho that’s about to be in a diabetic coma. And he’s like wallowing around in the bed like on the brink of death. So then my other patient told me she could walk. News flash: she could not, and we almost both fell trying to haul her to the bathroom. Oh, and she was 500 pounds.” I try to catch my breath. Sometimes I talk too fast. “So then, I have some other guy that pulled a knife on us at the nurses’ station, and there were no security guards on the floor, so of course I was the one that had to take it while we tackled him.”

“God, that sounds terrible!” She laughed. “How do you even do it? There’s no way I could get paid enough to do any of that.”
“Literally. I don’t even know, it’s like that every shift pretty much.” I itched my eyebrow under my sunglasses. “I’m getting burnt out so bad already.”

I got a sudden text from Jason.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Jay just texted me ‘can you get home asap?’”
“Should we go over there together, I could meet you at your place.”
“Nah, it’s fine. But if I don’t call you after an hour of me getting home or something, then just call Bruce or somebody.”
“Ok..” she didn’t sound convinced. I wasn’t either.

I suited up in the car and slinked to the apartment door, darts at the ready. What’s he talking about asap?

I carefully unlocked the door and slid in.
“Hello?” I said, holding up the darts. “If you kidnapped my boyfriend again, I’m gonna be pissed?” I call out questioningly.

Jason came from out of the bedroom. “Boyfriend?”
“Umm, yes?” I lower the darts. “Is everything ok? I got Steph on standby cause I thought-“
“Where do you wanna go?” He interrupted.
“Wha?”
“Where do you want to go?”
I glanced around to my invisible audience, still confused. “Umm, like on a date or-?”
“Yes.” He stared at me intently like I’m already supposed to know this.
“Art museum?”
“Ok. Be ready on Saturday.”
“Ok?” I am confused by the whole thing. “Lemme call of Steph..”

“Hey, did everything end up being ok?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Apparently, we’re going on a date.” I smirked at Jason.
“Ooo, where at?”
“I’m not tellin’ you where at, knowing y’all, somebody would try to stalk us the entire time.”
“Ughhhh, fine.”
“Bye, pookie.”
“Bye!”

I turned to Jason. “Alfred sent us some food.”
He helped me carry it in from the car, and then we ate until our stomachs hurt. At least, until my stomach hurt. Jason is more of a bottomless pit-type.
I let Matisse and Plushy run around in the living room for a while.
“So what’s the sudden thing with the date?” I asked. “We don’t really ‘do’ dates.”
“Yeah, but I want to start.” He pet Matisse as Matisse ran by.
“Hmm, ok.” I shrugged. “Well I’m not complaining then.” My stomach growls.
“Ughhh, I shouldn’t haven eaten that much.”
“You only had half the apple pie and the chicken stuff.”
“It’s chicken and dumplings, Jay.”
“Still a chicken thing.”
“You’re hopeless.” I started packing up the remaining food, which isn’t much.
“But you love me, yes?” Jay says this like he knows it. I won’t give him that satisfaction.
“You’re my burden to bear.” I say dramatically, throwing one hand across my face.
“Pffttt..” He leans further into the couch.
“So how was it today?”
“Ehhh, they’re all psycho, but that’s not new info.” I fold one of my legs under me. “Bruce is walking on two busted ankles after I told him not to and Damian is using a video of me calf roping Tim to blackmail him into-“
“What?” Jason asked horrified.
“Oh, god not like that-“ I shoved him lightly. “I’m talking about we literally used him in place of a calf. Me and Damian are just tryin’ to train the horses up some.”
“Oh, ok.” He exhaled deeply in relief, which I think is very funny.
“Do you wanna train on the roof tonight?” My eyes flickered up to him.

Chapter Text

We did train, for a long time. There’s a roof Jason likes to go to, specifically an old run-down hotel about twenty minutes away from home.
“Am I sensing that you’re too slow?” I joked, darting away from him. I am a tiny bit faster than him. He is a lot stronger than me.
“Um, I think you’re way underestimating me.” He pulled my arm backward, and I kicked back, connecting near his knee. I somehow weaseled out to get a few quick hits in before I ended up on the ground. A shame, but not really.
“Looks like you lost,” he pants in my ear. My arms are pinned; but not all the way.
“Mmm,” I grunt out. “Not quite.” I swiftly unbuckle his belt and rip it away from him. Surprising him just enough to let go, I’m able to worm away and swivel myself onto him. I can get the belt around his arms quick, tying almost immediately.
“I think you’re the loser on this one, honey.” I breathe smoke over him, happily.

Suddenly we hear a noise near the entrance to the roof. Uh oh. I get up from my kneeling position and face the entrance.
“We already claimed this spot.” Shit. It’s Bruce and Selina, and they look like they’re about to be occupied.
“Nice to see y’all made up.” I stay in place across the roof from them. “We can find somewhere else to go.”

“No,” Jason growled, stepping between me and them. “We were here first.”
I pull on his arm. “You cannot be serious.”

“Men,” Selina says, whirling around Bruce. “Always so territorial.” She’s a very beautiful woman, and very elegant. She does remind me exactly of a black cat.
I nod, agreeing with her. “But it could be worse. They could both be normal..” I shrugged, to the annoyance of Jason.
“You’re one to be talking about normal.”

“Pffttt..” I light a flame close to his foot.
“Any updates on the cases?” I call to Bruce.
“We’ll discuss it later. If you have any questions ask Dick.” He says shortly. I suspect there are updates. I’m gonna ask on the group chat when we get home.

“Ok,” I glance to Jason, trying to signal for us to leave. “Well have fun, anyways. See ya, Kitty!”
I let flames ripple around me as I jump from the roof to another. Bruce and Jason say nothing to each other, which I do this is a little sad. If I had the chance to have a father figure, I would want one.

“You know her from somewhere?” Jay asks when we’re back in the apartment.
“Yeah? I didn’t tell you all that?” I went to get food for Matisse and Plush. “She’s the one I used to live with when I first came here. I mean-“ I set down the bowl for them. “I didn’t know she was Catwoman or I would have tried to see her way sooner.”

“Yeah, I get that.” He curls up on the couch to read. “It makes a lot of sense that she’s the one you were talking about.”

This halts me in my tracks. “What does that mean?”
“You’re a lot like her.”
“A cat burglar that fucks Batman on the roof?”
“No,” he sighs hopelessly. Whatever, I think I’m funny.
“I’m gonna text them and see what the updates are.” We have to text information in somewhat cryptic tones, just for safety reasons. I plop down next to him and let him lay on my stomach while I’m texting.

(Me) Any updates?
(Dick) On which?
(Me) Any :(?
(Steph) What about a meetup tmr to discuss?
(Tim) Can’t, I got forced into taking the demon to a school event.
(Cass) the demon?
(Damian) I’m right here.
(Cass) oh.
(Dick) What about Friday?
(Me) can’t.
(Cass) I can’t either, I have ballet.
(Dick) best I can do is tmr late or Saturday early. Lydia, did you ever visit W again?
(Me) oo shit, no. I’ve been busy but I can look into it tmr tho.
(Dick) ok.
(Steph) we all need to get ramen or something soon.
(Damian) No.
(Cass) we can.

I close out of messages while they yap back and forth. I completely forgot about that Willoughby guy. I’m sure he’s already dead meat, but I can try again.
I text Stephanie last minute and get Selina’s number.

Sooo how’d it go? :)

She didn’t answer, yet.
“You wanna come with me to find that guy tomorrow?” I brush through his hair. It’s what mama used to do for me.
“Sure, if you think it’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, I think so.” I shift myself a little bit, he weights a ton on my legs. “How’s Roy? Has he said anything to you since then?”
It hadn’t been that long since we dropped off Roy, about two weeks ago.
“I think he’s ok,” Jay closed his eyes. I took this as a sign of trust. “I’m just worried about him. I always worry about him.”
“I know you are,” I kiss his head softly. “But I think he’ll be ok this time.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I obviously can’t tell him about me threatening Roy, so I don’t mention it.
“I just think so this time.”
“Just in the time I’ve known him he’s been to rehab twice. And both times for drugs and alcohol.”
“I’m telling you, I think this is the time it sticks.” I try to joke with him. “Are you questioning my professional opinion?”
“Considering all the things I’ve seen you do, yes I’m questioning it. Heavily.”
I scroll on my phone, still petting him. “Honestly I can’t argue with that.”

The next day, we visit Willoughby again. Or well, we try. We break in to find his wife, and their girl.

“Get out of my house!” His wife, her name is Petunia, shrieked. She tried to shield the girl, I felt very bad about this.
“We have nothing here!”

“We’re not here to rob you,” I say, crouching. My boots make me a lot taller, but the purpose of that is to intimidate men, not women. “We’re looking for your husband.”
Petunia grabbed a nearby kitchen knife, I guess what she thought would defend herself. I allowed her to hold it.
“We only want to talk to Willoughby. About the Scarecrow thing.”
I notice their girl is very small, wearing a sweet little black dress. I hate to make her cry, but this is important.
“My husband is dead,” she cries out. “We just got back from the funeral.” The knife crumples out of her hand, clattering on the ground loudly. Jason kicks it away quietly.
“What happened to him?” I tried to ask less aggressively.
“Don’t you get it? He was killed! He was killed by Scarecrow because he broke one of the rules.” She wailed. “That’s all I know.”
I tilt my head to Jason. She’s telling the truth, I’m sure of it.
“I apologize then.” I turned away swiftly, and Jason and I headed out. The girl watched us go, and I was sad for her. All girls deserve good dads.

“Well that didn’t go well.” I said once we got to a an alley a little ways from their apartment.
“No.” Jason agreed.
“Do you wanna head back home and I’ll go visit them?” I’m hesitant to say names, since we’re out in the field.
“See you later.” And with that, he is gone. He does that sometimes.

I go to Bruce’s for a while to swap information with everyone.
“Yeah, so looks like Willoughby is dead.” I lean against one of the table’s facing the board with papers and pictures pinned to it.
“What do you mean he’s dead?” Dick stopped sharing his chips with Duke.
“I went to revisit and apparently Scarecrow killed him.”

“He did.” Bruce entered the cave, causing some of the bats to begin screeching.
“Wait, you caught Scarecrow already?” I look from Bruce to Duke.
“No.” He sat down at the computer, already typing away. “But I did talk to Slade.”
Dick offers me some chips, and I take some regrettably. “You know that tunnel system me and Damian almost got lost in?” Dick asked.
“Yeah?”
“Well we found out that Scarecrow and Slade had planned to transport fear toxin to and from the asylum. One- to experiment on the inmates, and two- to smuggle certain inmates out that agreed to work for them.”

“Which inmates? And did any get away?”
“One did.” Bruce doesn’t say much, I’ll tell you that.
“Which one?” Duke asked, but Bruce won’t answer him.

“And what’s in it for Slade?” My eyebrows are furrowed as I try to process all this.
“Slade often is driven by money.” Bruce says. “And he still hasn’t killed you yet, like he was paid to do.”
“That doesn’t explain why he’s messing around with Scarecrow.”
“Not completely it doesn’t.” Bruce paused. “But I believe the simulation’s intended purpose was to eventually kill all of you.” He turned to us. “Slade would have teamed up with Scarecrow if he thought it would be easier to eliminate you, and take them from me in the process.”
I don’t ask what the backstory is with Bruce and Slade. Obviously, there’s not a lot of love there. But Bruce cares about his kids, and I respect that.
“Well where do you think Scarecrow could be?” Duke also leaned onto the table, like I was doing earlier.
“He’s in that tunnel system.” Bruce said with certainty. “Somewhere…”

“What about case one?” I asked suddenly. “We already know Dad hired him, so why don’t we just go after the main problem?”
“Lydia-“ Dick starts, only to be interrupted by Bruce.
“We’re working on it.” Bruce doesn’t turn to face me at all, something I take to be mildly offensive.
“I’ll work on it myself if I need to.” I snapped.
“No.” Bruce turned abruptly, more abrupt than I like, and I jumped a little. “We’re handling it.”

I snort lightly, sending barely a wisp of smoke into the air. “I understand.” No I don’t. And I’m about to start handling a hell of a lot of stuff myself. If they’re not willing to uphold their end of our agreement to tell each other things.

Chapter Text

I decided to wear one of my black jumpsuits for the date. I’m not big into dresses, unless they’re very, very fancy.
It’s a nice one I think, it flows a lot on the bottom half which I like, and the fabric is expensive.
For my hair, I just do a blowout, and I put on all my favorite jewelry-just the simple chain and some ruby earrings I have. I can’t wear the cross necklace around places cause I don’t want anybody to potentially recognize it.

“Hey, are you ready?” Jason looms in the doorway of the bedroom. I see he likes to dress up, too.
“Yeah, almost.” I clip on one last earring. “You wanna take my car?”
“I guess, since you won’t let us take the bike.” He says, almost sadly.
“The bike isn’t practical, plus my car looks nicer.” I brush up against him and arch my neck subtly as I exit the room. “We can cosplay as rich people better that way.”

The art museum of Gotham is very grand. It’s a huge granite and marble building, spanning almost the entire block with multiple floors. My favorite part about it is all the stained glass outside.
It needs to be protected almost 24/7, but it’s worth it. There’s pieces from all over the world here, some huge and stunning, some little and thought-provoking.
We get a lot of stares as we pass, probably cause both of us are so hot and well-dressed.
“What do you think this one means?” I stop in front of an abstract piece. It’s red and purple, with weird meandering swirls in between. I love abstract art.
“You know I’m not good with the abstract stuff.” Jason attempts to study it, but gives up after a minute. “Guess we’ll never know.”

We head to the medieval section, both favorites of ours.
“Oo- I really like this one.” I point to a dragon one, and there’s a knight in the background. “I should get that as a tattoo.”

“What about this one?” He points to a statue of a serpent and a god fighting. It’s insanely intricate.
“I love that one!” I say, holding onto his arm.

We wander around for hours, finally we settle by a large glass art piece. It takes up nearly the entire room, and there’s nobody else in here.

We stare at the piece for a long time, in comforting silence. A lot of times, we don’t say anything at all- and that’s ok.
“What is it about me that makes you stay?” Jay says, taking me a little by surprise.
I run my tongue over my back teeth. “What do you mean?”
“I leave you at random hours, I don’t respond to texts, I-“
“Jason.” I say slowly, taking his hand. “I do the same thing. It doesn’t matter to me if you have things to attend to, because I do, too. And I don’t want to invade on whatever you and Roy do-“
“You never invade on what I do.” I could see my eyes reflecting white in his.
I turn my gaze back to the glass. “I feel like I invade on what everybody does.”
“Lydia,” he grabs my face unexpectedly, and I exhale a stream of smoke. “All you’ve ever done is helped.”
I leaned on him, brushing my face against his shoulder as I did so.
“I’m not so sure.”
“But you do love me?” Oh, so I see the entire family truly is good at changing subjects.
“Yes, I do.”
The lights being shone on the glass piece began to change colors, from blue to pink. I spot a reference in this one.
“Do you love me?”
“Very much.” He leaned against the bench, the lights reflecting off his body beautifully.
I smile at this. “More than burgers and ramen?”
“Hmm, do you love me more than Matisse and Plushy?” He smirked.
“Know your limits and I’ll know mine.”
I fall asleep on him for a while, and we have to leave when the museum closes.

“So did you have fun?” Jay asked at dinner. We went to some fancy Italian restaurant, but I felt out of place. Everybody here is richer than us. More powerful than us.
“Of course I did.” I tried my best to politely eat the ravioli I ordered. “I feel very inspired, y’know?”
“Yeah, me too.” He ordered two plates of spaghetti, much to the disapproval of our waiter.

I sat in the floor and played with Matisse and Plushy when we got home. Jay had taken off my heels and put them in the corner.

I got a text from Selina.

Are you doing anything tomorrow night?

Umm, no- do you need help with anything?

Yes, if you’re willing to come to the club

She sent a few emojis and then didn’t respond to anything else I said.
“Looks like I’m goin’ to the Lounge tomorrow night.” I stretched, Matisse leaping out of my lap.

“Alone?” Aww, he’s getting protective.
“Me and Selina are going. She just said she needs help with a little somethin’, so I thought it would be fun.”

“She does shady stuff, I don’t know if you-“
“Jason, we all do shady stuff.”
“I guess.” He groans. “Just be safe.”

The following day, I bump into Kon and Tim in the cave, along with a few of the other kids during training.

Damian is already trying to tease Tim by nearly showing Kon the video. I give him what I call ‘the mom eyes’ and he immediately ceases.

“So you saw that Burberry has that new collection out, right?” I asked Kon.
“Burberry?”
“Yeah?” I’m confused.
“I’ll never get why you talk like that.” He looks to Tim, in fake-boredom.
“Dialect is subjective, Kon.”
“Haha- you’re so funny.” He rolls his eyes as Tim continues non-verbally fighting with Damian.
“Thanks,” I stretched my arms, sending flames rippling up them. “I was touched as a child.” I laughed at this, cause I found out that kind of humor does make me feel a lot better about it.
Kon and Tim look horrified, and I feel slightly bad.
“It’s ok you can laugh. That was like the whole point.” I shouldered by Kon on the way out. “You know I beat Tim’s ass during training the other day?” I call on my way out. I hear Kon already start to tease him.

I do a few other things throughout the day, like ride Soda and thank Alfred a second time for the food.

But now, it’s finally time to meet Selina at the club. I don’t know what she’s doing there, but she says my job is to infiltrate, then distract.

“Here, throw on these.” She tosses me an outfit. I am not happy with it. It’s some kind of chain mail top with a very tiny skirt and thigh-high boots.
She must have seen my hesitation.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, sweetie. This is entire optional.” She starts putting on her lipstick.
“No, it’s fine- I want to do it.” I start putting on these outfit. “It sounds really fun actually.” I haven’t danced in a long time, and I was a child when Selina found me- so she always banned me from doing it. However, there was a pole installed in her apartment for practice, so I did it anyways. Never in front of people, though.
I pet all the cats before we head out, and she has a lot of them. They all purr and some even let me pick them up for a few minutes. I love cats, I truly do.
“Ok, so we’re clear on the plan?” She says, all suited up in civilian club-wear.
“Yep. I’m not gonna ask questions, just do what you gotta and I’m the distraction, right?”
“Yes. You just go out there and be gorgeous.” She adjusts my necklace for me. Selina is one of the only mom-type people left in my life. I do love her, almost like mama.
“Does my makeup look ok?”
“It looks..perfect.” Selina says, stuffing some things into her purse as she looks at me.
“But, before we go in, you’ll let me know if you feel unsafe, ok?”
“Yep. But I mean, I’m the meta here.” I joked.
Selina gives me a serious look, and I’m instantly sorry. This is a dangerous game for many women, and a lot of them don’t have much of a choice.

We enter the club, and the music is loud and upbeat. There’s lights flashing everywhere, I’m worried somebody might notice my eyes flashing too much. But this is important to her, so I’ll do it.

She shows me the way to the back, where the dancers are getting ready. I set down my bag, pretending to get ready with them. My job isn’t to interfere, but to minimally interact.

“So who’re you?” One of the girls calls. She’s very pretty, I like her.
“Just a new girl.” I say calmly. I start strapping up the heels Selina let me borrow.
“Ok, you can go on after me then.” She finishes doing her hair and starts on makeup.
“Ok!” I bide my time by doing little things until it’s my turn, like fixing my mascara and lip gloss.

Finally, it’s my turn.
“What song do you want, honey?” One of the slightly older women approaches me kindly.
“Whatever y’all wanna play!” I yell over the club noise.
“Huh…” she smiles at me. “You got a nice accent. You’ll get the good money talking like that to people.”

If you say so.
Finally, I make my appearance. The lights reflect over me in a lovely way, showing every tattoo and scar I still have healing. Now, I have no idea what I’m doing, so my plan is to just make it up as I go.

The music is seductive and loud, with a base that’s almost too heavy. I start by twirling around the pole slowly, which is how most people start I think.
There are some hoots and noises in the crowd, but I’m not even getting started yet. I lean my back on the pole, thrusting my hips slightly out and caressed up and down on it behind me.
I can’t do a lot of moves actually on the pole, so I stick with some basics. I can wrap my legs around, feeling the muscles strain as I loop around. I arched my neck, careful to keep my posture correct.
I also face toward the crowd and arch myself from off the ground, which gets a bit of a rise from people. It occurs to me that I don’t know how long exactly I’m supposed to be up here. I twirl a few more times, increasing speed with the music ever so slightly. They need to see all of me. That’s the whole point. The light shows off all of my muscles perfectly. Like I said, I’m not a big or a small woman necessarily, just lean.
I run my hand up and down my side as I dance, clinking the chain mail gently.
Once I do what I call the big finale, I exit to backstage once again. All the girls squeal and say I did very good, which I am pleased with. They say I made a lot of money, but I let them keep it. Some insisted I take half, so I stuffed a few bills in my waistband to appease them.

“Selina?” I wandered around trying to find her as people tried continuously to talk to me, asking for my number and such. Things that I’m not interested in. I decided to wait in a back room. I walked by one of the closed doors, when I felt a hand jerk my arm harshly. I got pulled into the back room, and before I knew it, I was faced with an obviously pissed Selina and an even more pissed Bruce. And for some reason Dick and Stephanie are here.
“You did so good,” Steph whispers to me. “No way I could do that.”

“She’s with me, Bats, no reason to go and get all-“
“Selina,” Bruce says sharply. “Neither of you should be here. Whatever business you’re up to needs to stop.”
“Aww, baby-“ Selina whined at him. I do not enjoy watching them fight-flirt. “We’re just having fun.” She tries to put her arms around him, but he stops her.
“No more.”
“Ughhh..” Selina begins to leave the room, ushering me to come with her. “Come on, let’s go home.”
I start to leave, but Dick grabs my arm. I do not like that. “What are you doin’?” I ask, half glaring at him from behind me.
“What are you doing?” He returns harshly. “Does Jason know you’re here-“
“He knows I’m here, yes.” I rip my arm from his grasp. “I’m also an adult.”
“Not making very ‘adult’ decisions.” He mutters.
I feel my eyes blazing. “Mind your business, I haven’t seen her in years and I wanted to help.” I turn to Steph, but it’s starting to get a little cold in here. “See ya later.”
“See ya.” She says uncomfortably. I’ll call her later.
I leave the club separately from Selina, although she did wait on me. I need some time to myself, something I don’t get a lot of anymore.
“Fine, but you can’t wear that to just walk around in the streets this late.” Selina gestures to the outfit.
“Ok, I guess.” I let her drive me by her apartment to change and then I leave for home. I change my mind mid-course and go so on a roof for a while. The moon is half-visible tonight, and through all the craziness of a Gotham night, it gives me peace.

Chapter Text

I continued to sit on the roof for over an hour. I haven’t been able to process a lot of things in a while, and I need to organize myself.

So, let’s lay it out. Number one, the unsolved cases. My dad is still out there somewhere, and so is whoever escaped the asylum. I also think there’s gotta be more to it that Scarecrow just wanted to experiment on the inmates. Number two, I’m not sure what all this tension is with me and the family. They’re not telling me stuff, but then they get mad when I take matters into my own hands. And number three- Jason. I love him, I do very much. We understand each other, and he’s a good man. I’m not somebody who believes in good men. So, I will do what I think is right, and tell him about what happened at the club.
But also, should I try to take things into my own hands once more, and talk to Slade and Scarecrow myself? Or should I try to talk it out with them all, and see where that gets me?
Another thing- Jason doesn’t seem all that interested in what I go out and do, especially when it concerns the family. I want to go over the details of the Slade/Scarecrow thing, and ask him what he thinks about catching Edward. Bruce knows more than what he’s telling me, I can feel it.

“Jason, hello?” I entered the apartment quietly, careful not to wake him if he’s sleeping.
He’s not, I find him on the patio waiting for me.
“You waited up this whole time?” I asked as I closed the patio door.
“Yes.” He stared out into the streets, the lights of Gotham flashing off the patio door’s glass. It reminds me of the art museum, almost.
“Thank you, love.” I sit down with him. “Are you ready for bed?”
“Almost,” he says, turning toward me. “Did everything work out with Selina?”
“Oh, yeah-“ I can’t look at him, so I stare into the streets below, as well. “Jay?”
“Hmm?”
“Selina asked me to be the distraction tonight. So I…I danced, ok? I don’t want to hide anything from you, so if that bothers you just let me know.” I wait for a response, then add on to my apology when there isn’t one. “Bruce and Dick came with Steph for some reason and broke up whatever Selina was doing, so we left. But I am sorry-“
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” He put a hand on my thigh, his fingers covering my tattoos there. “I just told you to be safe.”
“Yes,” I curled my fingers around his. “But I don’t want to hide anything from you. I won’t do things like that if you don’t want me to. I just wanted to help Selina out.”
“Lydia, I get it. You don’t have to explain yourself-“
“Yes I do. We’re in this one together. I just have to get used to not being by myself.” I lower my eyes, trying to figure out how I can pay tribute for this.
“Me too.” He says in a lower tone, leaning on me. The heat radiates between us, and I feel the connection in my soul. Or whatever soul I have left, anyway.
Smoke envelopes us, and I take in as much of him as I can.
“You’re a good man, Jay.” My thumb rolls over his. “And I don’t really believe in good men.”
“You really think so?”
“Yes.”

We sit there for a long time, but we sleep for even longer. I finally got a solid ten hours in, and I think that’s pretty good considering.

I have work the next day, and it was very bad as usual. I’ll give you some glimpses of my conversations.

“So do you wanna hang that potassium now or wait until he’s not going nuts?”
“Hmm, do we got an order for restraints in?”
“Nope.”
“Ehhh, shit. Let’s just do what we can then.”

“Hey Brittany, could you meet me in 18? She thinks we’re the PD trying to take her cats that she doesn’t have or something, I’m bout to B-52 her.”
“Yeah, sure, give me one second with 22.”

“So, it looks like your blood pressure is um, very high, and it hasn’t been running like that. So we’re gonna have to give you some meds for that if that’s ok and then we’ll monitor things from there.”
“You have the sweetest accent! Where are you from,sweetie?”
“Georgia.”
“Awwww! I have friends from-“
“That’s very nice, but did you hear what I said about the blood press-“
“I remember we visited Georgia one time. It’s a real good place, real good.”

“Mr. Field, your family can’t bring you drops from in here, this is a hospital.”
“I’ll do whatever the hell I want to!”
“Ok.”

“Dude, I’m so tired. I finally got in like a solid 10 hours but still…”
“Lucky, I only got in three since I worked a double last night.”

After work and after I suit up, I decided to visit Slade, if I could. Probably a bad idea to do alone, but they drove me to it. If they’re gonna withhold information, so will I. But I do text Jason to let him know, to his unease.
I am able to convince the guards somehow, telling them I’m a Batman associate and telling them information of his arrest that only I would know.
I slip into the tiny, dingy room, and Slade is already waiting.

“Came to pay me a visit already?” He doesn’t take his eyes off me, and I don’t like it at all.
“Unfortunately.” I stood near the table, arms crossed. “Where did my Dad go after he was hired by you..and you failed?”
“When people pay me to kill people, it’s typically not in the contract for me to know where they go after our business is done.” He leans in, speaking in the growling-low voice that he does.
“But where is he? You didn’t say that you don’t know.”
“He’s around,” Slade said, almost out of boredom. “I’m sure you’ll be bumping into him soon.”
“And what about Scarecrow?”
“What about him? And Batman already came for this information, so-“
“So nothing. We’re talking now. What about Scarecrow? What was the plan there, and why would you care?”
“Scarecrow has his own way of doing things…and I have mine.” The chains clinked a little from his place in the chair. “But, whatever he was up to was more than just transporting fear toxin.”
“Obviously. So you’re saying you didn’t know the entire plan?”
“I only got involved with him to kill you and some of the Bat’s kids, sweetheart.”
“Do not call me that.” I let flames flicker around us.
“Who was that inmate that escaped?”
“Why don’t you get Batman to tell you?” He yawned. “He’s one of his oldest friends.”
I don’t like the sound of that. The only person I can think of would be….no. No, and I can’t tell Jason that. I have no idea what he would do if he found out. I know he’s tried to make his peace, but that peace could easily go out the window if Joker is just out running around.
“One last thing,” I said, putting one hand on the small table in here. “How did you know about- them?” I hope he knows I’m talking about the Court.
“That’s just what your daddy told me. Don’t know how he knew about them.”
His eyes glint in the light, unlike mine, there is no hope or light in them.

I leave without a word, and retreat to home to think everything over.

When I get home, Jason and I talk about everything and lay it out the best we can.
“So, dad must have told him about the Court, but now the issue is how would he have known about the Court?”
“Bruce knows about all of this?” Jay asked.
“I’m sure he does. That’s why they’ve been so weird lately about not telling me stuff. Slade said that Edward is ‘around’, and I’m sure Bruce knows probably exactly where..” I jump down from the kitchen counter. “I think I’m gonna try to talk to them one last time.”

I texted the group chat once.

Meet up. Tmr at 20:00, no excuses.
What?
Ok.
Ok!

“I’ll come with you if you want.” Jason’s picking out a book to read for the night.
“No, I don’t want you doing something you don’t wanna do.” I make my way across the living room and sit down with him.
“I’ll come.” He said in finality.
“Ok.” I pick out one of my favorites and return to the couch.

Chapter Text

I continued to sit on the roof for over an hour. I haven’t been able to process a lot of things in a while, and I need to organize myself.

So, let’s lay it out. Number one, the unsolved cases. My dad is still out there somewhere, and so is whoever escaped the asylum. I also think there’s gotta be more to it that Scarecrow just wanted to experiment on the inmates. Number two, I’m not sure what all this tension is with me and the family. They’re not telling me stuff, but then they get mad when I take matters into my own hands. And number three- Jason. I love him, I do very much. We understand each other, and he’s a good man. I’m not somebody who believes in good men. So, I will do what I think is right, and tell him about what happened at the club.
But also, should I try to take things into my own hands once more, and talk to Slade and Scarecrow myself? Or should I try to talk it out with them all, and see where that gets me?
Another thing- Jason doesn’t seem all that interested in what I go out and do, especially when it concerns the family. I want to go over the details of the Slade/Scarecrow thing, and ask him what he thinks about catching Edward. Bruce knows more than what he’s telling me, I can feel it.

“Jason, hello?” I entered the apartment quietly, careful not to wake him if he’s sleeping.
He’s not, I find him on the patio waiting for me.
“You waited up this whole time?” I asked as I closed the patio door.
“Yes.” He stared out into the streets, the lights of Gotham flashing off the patio door’s glass. It reminds me of the art museum, almost.
“Thank you, love.” I sit down with him. “Are you ready for bed?”
“Almost,” he says, turning toward me. “Did everything work out with Selina?”
“Oh, yeah-“ I can’t look at him, so I stare into the streets below, as well. “Jay?”
“Hmm?”
“Selina asked me to be the distraction tonight. So I…I danced, ok? I don’t want to hide anything from you, so if that bothers you just let me know.” I wait for a response, then add on to my apology when there isn’t one. “Bruce and Dick came with Steph for some reason and broke up whatever Selina was doing, so we left. But I am sorry-“
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” He put a hand on my thigh, his fingers covering my tattoos there. “I just told you to be safe.”
“Yes,” I curled my fingers around his. “But I don’t want to hide anything from you. I won’t do things like that if you don’t want me to. I just wanted to help Selina out.”
“Lydia, I get it. You don’t have to explain yourself-“
“Yes I do. We’re in this one together. I just have to get used to not being by myself.” I lower my eyes, trying to figure out how I can pay tribute for this.
“Me too.” He says in a lower tone, leaning on me. The heat radiates between us, and I feel the connection in my soul. Or whatever soul I have left, anyway.
Smoke envelopes us, and I take in as much of him as I can.
“You’re a good man, Jay.” My thumb rolls over his. “And I don’t really believe in good men.”
“You really think so?”
“Yes.”

We sit there for a long time, but we sleep for even longer. I finally got a solid ten hours in, and I think that’s pretty good considering.

I have work the next day, and it was very bad as usual. I’ll give you some glimpses of my conversations.

“So do you wanna hang that potassium now or wait until he’s not going nuts?”
“Hmm, do we got an order for restraints in?”
“Nope.”
“Ehhh, shit. Let’s just do what we can then.”

“Hey Brittany, could you meet me in 18? She thinks we’re the PD trying to take her cats that she doesn’t have or something, I’m bout to B-52 her.”
“Yeah, sure, give me one second with 22.”

“So, it looks like your blood pressure is um, very high, and it hasn’t been running like that. So we’re gonna have to give you some meds for that if that’s ok and then we’ll monitor things from there.”
“You have the sweetest accent! Where are you from,sweetie?”
“Georgia.”
“Awwww! I have friends from-“
“That’s very nice, but did you hear what I said about the blood press-“
“I remember we visited Georgia one time. It’s a real good place, real good.”

“Mr. Field, your family can’t bring you drops from in here, this is a hospital.”
“I’ll do whatever the hell I want to!”
“Ok.”

“Dude, I’m so tired. I finally got in like a solid 10 hours but still…”
“Lucky, I only got in three since I worked a double last night.”

After work and after I suit up, I decided to visit Slade, if I could. Probably a bad idea to do alone, but they drove me to it. If they’re gonna withhold information, so will I. But I do text Jason to let him know, to his unease.
I am able to convince the guards somehow, telling them I’m a Batman associate and telling them information of his arrest that only I would know.
I slip into the tiny, dingy room, and Slade is already waiting.

“Came to pay me a visit already?” He doesn’t take his eyes off me, and I don’t like it at all.
“Unfortunately.” I stood near the table, arms crossed. “Where did my Dad go after he was hired by you..and you failed?”
“When people pay me to kill people, it’s typically not in the contract for me to know where they go after our business is done.” He leans in, speaking in the growling-low voice that he does.
“But where is he? You didn’t say that you don’t know.”
“He’s around,” Slade said, almost out of boredom. “I’m sure you’ll be bumping into him soon.”
“And what about Scarecrow?”
“What about him? And Batman already came for this information, so-“
“So nothing. We’re talking now. What about Scarecrow? What was the plan there, and why would you care?”
“Scarecrow has his own way of doing things…and I have mine.” The chains clinked a little from his place in the chair. “But, whatever he was up to was more than just transporting fear toxin.”
“Obviously. So you’re saying you didn’t know the entire plan?”
“I only got involved with him to kill you and some of the Bat’s kids, sweetheart.”
“Do not call me that.” I let flames flicker around us.
“Who was that inmate that escaped?”
“Why don’t you get Batman to tell you?” He yawned. “He’s one of his oldest friends.”
I don’t like the sound of that. The only person I can think of would be….no. No, and I can’t tell Jason that. I have no idea what he would do if he found out. I know he’s tried to make his peace, but that peace could easily go out the window if Joker is just out running around.
“One last thing,” I said, putting one hand on the small table in here. “How did you know about- them?” I hope he knows I’m talking about the Court.
“That’s just what your daddy told me. Don’t know how he knew about them.”
His eyes glint in the light, unlike mine, there is no hope or light in them.

I leave without a word, and retreat to home to think everything over.

When I get home, Jason and I talk about everything and lay it out the best we can.
“So, dad must have told him about the Court, but now the issue is how would he have known about the Court?”
“Bruce knows about all of this?” Jay asked.
“I’m sure he does. That’s why they’ve been so weird lately about not telling me stuff. Slade said that Edward is ‘around’, and I’m sure Bruce knows probably exactly where..” I jump down from the kitchen counter. “I think I’m gonna try to talk to them one last time.”

I texted the group chat once.

Meet up. Tmr at 20:00, no excuses.
What?
Ok.
Ok!

“I’ll come with you if you want.” Jason’s picking out a book to read for the night.
“No, I don’t want you doing something you don’t wanna do.” I make my way across the living room and sit down with him.
“I’ll come.” He said in finality.
“Ok.” I pick out one of my favorites and return to the couch.

I decided to have our meeting in the library, I don’t like the cave that much cause there’s no windows.
“What was so urgent that I had to miss a date night?” Great, Dick is already in a bad mood.
“You can reschedule the date night.” I plopped down onto one of the floor cushions, in attempt to show submission. I don’t want this ‘meeting’ to escalate.
“Why are you here?” Damian grilled Jason, who was leaning in the doorway.
“He’s with me.” I said before he could answer. Why can’t they all just chill out for five freakin minutes.

I try to figure out how to aim my proposal.
“I went to visit Slade, since all of you are withholding information.”
Dick went to say something, but I continued. “My proposal is either I am completely involved in the cases, or I’m not at all. I don’t think not being involved is very fair since I was involved this far. And if I’m gonna be completely involved, I want to know the same info as everyone else.”

“You’re not making yourself very trustworthy,” Dick glanced around the room, I guess looking for support.
“How so?”
“You act like we’re the only ones withholding information.”
I sigh frustratedly. “I’m only withholding stuff because y’all are. That’s why I called the entire meeting so we don’t do that anymore.”

I unveiled a huge stack of papers from my bag. “This is all the information I have for each case.” I tossed my head slightly. “I expect the same in return.”

Tim shifted on the couch awkwardly and Steph looked at me as if she had something to say.

“Ok,” I turned disappointedly to Jason. “Let’s go.”

“Wait.” Damian says as I’m getting up.
“What?”
“We know where your Father is.” He says through narrowed eyes.
“I know you do.” I exhale, releasing smoke out.
“He’s already started building a new compound.”
“I know.” I did not know that part, but I had assumed so. I’m trying not to give anything away. “I also know about the escaped inmate that nobody wanted to tell me about.” My gaze angrily flickered to Dick, but I said nothing directly to him. “I assume Scarecrow meant for that to happen.”
“Why do you say that?” Tim asked.
“Because nobody in their right mind would let him get away. I suspect Scarecrow released him on purpose.” I tilted my head toward everyone else, my hair spilling around my shoulders. “I will be investigating further, whether as a team or not.”

Steph piped up, scooting herself closer to me. “As a team.” Her eyes sparkled more than usual, I think it was probably due to the rebellion of it all.
I smiled lightly at her. “Always.” I held her shoulder lovingly. If nobody else approved, at least she did.
“I’ll see you all tomorrow. With updated information.” I dipped my head to them all, and Jason and I departed.

And see them tomorrow, I did. I placed my bag in the cave and started to organize some of my medical supplies.
“We’re going to those tunnels tonight.” I told whoever entered the cave without looking up.
“Says who?” It was Dick, with Cass and Duke shortly behind.
“Says me.” I stood up from my crouching position, eyes blazing. “I have my suspicions on where they lead to, and I wanna be sure.”
After some light arguing, we did end up suiting up and heading back to the tunnels.

I slung my bag across myself sideways, with everyone else following behind and around me. “Ready?”
I illuminate one hand with flames and start walking.
“I thought you can see in the dark?” Damian asked, possibly trying to cause an argument. He is a child, I have nothing against him.
“I can. The light is for you.” I saw my eyes reflecting from the light as we walked. Duke is in the rear, using his own light emissions.
This tunnel system is very large, and there’s water on the ground. I just want to see if this drain connects to the Court’s.

As we walk, Dick tries to start up a conversation. Not a very good one, at that.
“You and Red hood need to tone it down a little bit when you’re out in the field. Batman said-“

“What we do ‘in the field’ ain’t your business.” My eyebrows twitch as I say it. “None of us ask you to tone it down when you’re freakin’ it up with Queen Mother-“
There’s an eruption of laughter, and I realize I let the name slip. You see, the girls in the family like to call Kori ‘Queen Mother’, number one because it’s funny as hell; and number two because it’s funny that Dick is just Dick and Kori is Queen Mother.
“Who?” Dick asked confusedly.
“Y’know, your beautiful goddess girlfriend who you never let us hang out with.” I kick one of the puddles, sending water spraying out from us.
“Ok, we’re not talking about this right now.” He says, embarrassed. I feel kinda bad, but not that bad.
“Fine, but if you don’t treat her right then I will.” I hear more giggling from Steph and Tim, which I am pleased to hear.
We wander further into the tunnels.
“Do you still have that line?” Somebody asked Cass.
“Yes.” We have a long amount of reflective line that we gave to Cass so we won’t get too lost in here. But if that fails, apparently Dick put up a tracker at the entrance we can use to find our way back.
“We didn’t need this many people,” Dick says as we walk. He’s flipping the sticks casually, but we’re all on edge about what we’ll find down here.
“Well considering you and Robin let him get away, I feel like you might want to reconsider that statement.” Jason gets along with Dick sometimes, and sometimes not.
“Watch it, T-Red hood.” Damian scoffs from beside me. It really is hard to keep up the code names when we’re all together.
“Or what?” Jason kicks up some water in Damian’s direction.
“Hey!” I wave my hand out for him to stop. We’re way too old to be fighting with kids like that.
I stop suddenly, waiting for Steph to come beside me. Then we walk together.
“So what exactly are we looking for down here?” She whispers to everyone.
“Why don’t you ask Alchemist?” Dick grunts. One of the sticks strikes against the wall. I ignore him, for now.
“We’re down here to see where the tunnels lead. I suspect that we’ll end up-“ a sudden gush of air blew from around one corner to the tunnels, putting out my fire temporarily. I rekindle it and continue talking. “I suspect that we’ll end up finding the Drain.”
“The same one from…?” Tim looks to Steph and Duke in concern.
“Yep.” We turn the corner, and find an opening at one of the ends of the tunnels where the wind seemed to come from.
“Wait.” Dick whispers to all of us. Everybody stops, and I allow him to move past me.
When we approach what we thought was the tunnel’s end, we hear chanting and voices from above us. It looks like there’s actually a grate that’s above us in the tunnel. It’s a drain.
We stay out of view, and I try my best to hear what is going on above us.
I signal to Dick to back up, and all of us slowly revert to the shadows again.
“They’re just doing a training ritual,” I explain once we’re far away. “I don’t think they’re gonna bother us, but that confirms what I thought about the tunnels connecting.”

Chapter Text

“What makes you so sure they’re not gonna come down here?” Dick hissed.
“I mean I’m not completely sure…” I frowned. “But we still haven’t found Scarecrow yet, and that was the other reason I wanted us to come down here.”

“True.” Duke started rippling his own light waves back down the way we came.
“Let’s get home and then we’ll regroup from there.” Dick regathers himself and we start heading back.
Jay pulls me back from the middle of the group and we wait until they get a few steps ahead.
“Who was it that escaped?” His eyes flash from mine to the rest of the group.
I don’t know if I can bring myself to tell him.
I don’t give him a direct answer, but instead I curl my fingers around his. This is answer enough.
“Pl-please don’t tell me it’s him.”
I hate to see him scared, but he is, and now I don’t know if there’s a whole lot I can do.
“Let’s talk about it once we get out of here, ok.” I lean into him, trying to ease him into walking.

“Are you guys coming?” Tim calls to us from up ahead.
“Come on, let’s go.” I basically lead him out of the tunnels, staying out of the line of sight from everyone else.
We’re about halfway out when Cass spotted a weird light down one of the passageways.
“Robin and I will investigate,” Dick says confidently. “Everybody else- get back to the entrance.”
“No way, y’all are the exact ones that lost him the first time.” I send a small amount of fire lining the walls of the tunnel.
“Yeah, I feel like there at least needs to be a third person.” Steph agrees nervously, brushing some hair out of her face.
I try to offer a non-direct tribute to Dick.
“At least take Duke with you, that way both groups will have a meta. And a light source.”
“Ok, that’s something I could get behind.” Dick signals for Duke to follow them to the passage.

Cass and Steph start leading our group after they leave.
“So do they always train like that?” Tim starts playing with his staff as he asks me.
“What do you mean?” I’m a little distracted by worrying about Jason.
“Like with all the chanting and weird stuff?”
“Ohh, no that’s a ritual-type thing. They must have just got some new Talons to come in or something.” Talking about this makes me uneasy while we’re down here. It’s been forged into my brain that they’re always listening.

We wait on the rest of the group for a long time. I casually talk to Steph and Cass, while trying to calm down Jason. Finally, the group emerges and sees us at our meeting point, which is a little ways away from the original tunnel site.
“We’ll come up with a new plan at base.” Dick says shortly, “we found something.”
No one asks any questions, instead we head back as instructed.

“I’ll be there in just a minute.” I quietly told Steph. I don’t want to alarm anyone here.

“I should go-“ Jay tries to pull away from my lead.
“No, you’re not going anywhere.” I fall back behind him, forcing him into my section of the cave. Thank god for the dividers. I really don’t know what to do, all I can do is revert back to what I know as a nurse.
“Lay down.” I say calmly.
“No, I just want to go home-“ he’s shaking bad, and I don’t know what else to do besides get more aggressive.
“We’ll go home as soon as we can, but for now I asked you to lay down.” I say, more firmly this time. He obeys, and I start digging in the med cabinet. I’m gonna need a few different things. Shit, we’re almost out of a lot of stuff. My options are basically limited to Xanax, ketamine, and a few other things I think might be too light. I think ketamine is too excessive, for now.
It’s hard to decide, because I can’t do anything too crazy, but also Jason is a very, very big man. I decided on the Xanax, hopefully that will be enough.
“Here.” I hand him it with some water.
“What is this?” I don’t why he sounds suspicious.
“Take it.”
He stares at it nervously, but his legs are still shaking. He needs this.
“I’m just trying to help.” I try to soften my gaze as best I can. “Please.” I extend my arm further out for him to take it.
He takes it reluctantly, but I’m gonna try to do everything I can to fix this.
“Here’s you a blanket, ok?” I covered him with one of them from the new blanket-warmer Bruce ordered. “I’m gonna go talk to them about the plan.”
I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against his. It’s a thing I like to do. “I promise I’m gonna fix everything.”

I try to break away to leave, but Jay stops me.
“Please don’t leave..” he says, so sadly it makes my chest hurt. I can’t leave him now, and I won’t.
“Ok.” I sit down on the bed with him, showing him the most love that I’m able. I stroke his arms and hair in silence while he lays down. They’ve probably already started going over the case without me, but that’s not my concern anymore.
“It’s ok…everything’s gonna be ok…” I don’t think the single Xanax put him to sleep that fast, I don’t think he’s been sleeping a lot either. I actually haven’t seen him sleep in a very long time.

Once I feel like it’s ok to leave, I return to the main section of the cave.
“Sorry that took so long,” I pace up to one of our main strategy tables.
“You didn’t miss much,” Tim stares at the table,chewing gum anxiously. “We’re just going over what we already know.”
I stare at the table as well. “Is this a map of the drains?”
“Yep.” Steph is busy picking at a small rip on it already.
“Ok. Well it goes a lot farther than that.” I pick up one of the pens and start circling things. “So that’s the lab…that’s the asylum…and that’s…one of the entrances to the Court.” I suddenly remember. “Oh, so what did y’all find down there? Anything good?”
“Anything but good.” Dick leans against the table, perplexed. “It was another lab, but this time we found some different kinds of stuff than what Scarecrow normally has.”
“Are you gonna tell me straight up or not?” I’m trying not to lose patience, but it’s been a very long day.
“Lydia, the lab had fear toxin and a new joker toxin compound. I even was able to take some samples.” He pulls out some small tubes from his pocket. “Would you be able to figure out what these do?” He hands them to me. The liquid in them is a weird gray-green color.
“Yes…I probably could. But the way I usually find things out like that is testing them on myself.” My eyes lift from the tubes and rise to everyone here. “At least that’s what I used to do.”
“Ok, I’m totally not letting you do that.” Steph swipes the tubes from my hands. “There’s gotta be a better way to find out what it does.”
“We’re gonna have to stop whatever it is that they’re planning, and soon.” Dick crosses his arms again. “They’re moving way too fast for my liking”.

“What about case four?” Tim glances around for us to remember.
“You’re right, I almost completely forgot about that.” I said, adjusting my bone bracelet. It’s made of gold and rattlesnake vertebrae, I have some earrings to match.
“We’ll pick up on case four later.” Dick says. “I’m not so unconvinced that it doesn’t tie in to the cases we already have open.”
Right after he said that, Alfred called.
“Yes, Alfred?” Dick turned from us to the computer.
“Master Dick, I’m afraid you might want to turn on the news..sooner rather than later.” I don’t like hearing Alfred worried.

He turns on the news, the lights of it flashing across the screen as we all pile around.
5 dead in a recent attack. The Joker is the prime suspect, but it is unknown where he is currently.

They say nothing about Scarecrow, which I find to be odd.

Dick slams into the keyboard in frustration, making some of us jump.
“Everybody else go home for the night, me and Bruce can handle this one.” He sighs.

“Bye, Steph.”
“Bye, see ya later.”
“Nice work today, guys.”
“Bye.”

Everyone leaves, and I wait by the table with the maps on it.
“You told Jason about the Joker?” He asks flatly, scrolling on the computer. He’s waiting for Bruce, I bet.

“Yes.” Flames flicker around me nervously. “I thought it was best not to hide anything from him.”
“You don’t know what he’s capable of.” He curls his hand tightly around the clicker of the computer.

I sidle up to him carefully, gazing at the computer with him. “Yes I do. And he’s not gonna do anything this time, he’s made his peace.” I remember Jason’s ferociousness that night he darted me. It still hurts to think about.
“How do you know?”
“I just do. I have everything planned out, ok?”
“Don’t take any risks that don’t need to be taken.” Dick says stiffly. I hear it in his voice that he’s holding back all the things he really wants to say.
“I’m not trying to.” I lower my gaze from the computer and in the direction of Jason. “I’m just trying to fix everything.”

“Some things can’t be fixed, Lydia.”

I blink slowly and let some smoke escape me in disappointment. “I know.”
I slink back to my side of the cave, a little more upset than I’d like to admit.
“We’re gonna just stay here tonight.” I call back to him. “Good luck on the mission.”
“Good luck to you.” I see him leaving to go get the Batmobile ready.
I return to Jason and make a small nest on the floor with some leftover blankets.
We have some backup pillows as well, so I stack some around myself.
I sleep relatively soundly that night, given the circumstances. The cave is quiet and dark after they leave, and I’m thankful for it. Jason needs the sleep, and so do I.

I don’t wake up until about 11:00 in the morning the next day. I wouldn’t have woken up if it wasn’t for Damian.

“You can’t just stay here the entire day.” He stands by one of the dividers to the ‘room’. I roll over, still half asleep. My legs tangle together in the blankets as I lift myself up. “Yeah I know, we were just leaving.” I pull myself up by lifting off the bed. “Do you wanna ride later?”

There’s a short moment of silence, followed by a shy ‘yes’.
“Ok, I’ll see ya this afternoon then.” I wave to Damian, then start putting all my pillows and blankets away.
I shake Jason awake gently. “Hey, c‘mon.”
He groans and pulls away.
“We gotta go, it’s already 11:00.” I’m eventually able to get him to get up and start leaving. I look for Bruce or Dick but they must have already gotten back last night.

“What about..”
“We can talk about it when we get home,” I said, slinging my bag over one shoulder. “Let’s go home.” I put my hand out for him to take it. I left a note on the bed for Alfred or Bruce to order more meds from wherever they get them.

On the way home, he didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything either.

“It really will be ok.” I say as we crawl back into bed. I let him lay on me again, his head presssed into my stomach.
“You can’t let a single person control your life, it’s just not fair to you.”
“But you don’t understand all the things he did-“
“Jason,” I run my fingers along his face lightly. “Look who you’re talking to. I maybe don’t know every exact thing he did, but I have some idea.”
“I know, but I don’t think I can just let it go.”
“How many times have you argued with Bruce about it?”
“I’ve lost count over the years…”
“Jason?”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to keep arguing with him about it for the rest of your life?”
He doesn’t say anything for a long time.
“What about you and your dad? Are you still gonna kill him?”
“No. Not anymore.” I close my eyes in acceptance of this statement. “It’s not my place anymore to give him what he deserves.”
“Then whose is it?” He gazes at me as if I know the answers to anything I pretend to know about.
“I don’t know. But he’s not my responsibility.” I trace along one of the scars near his shoulder. “I have a life now with you, and I have friends and people I care about. Hating somebody takes up too much energy that I just don’t have anymore.”
He stares up at the ceiling, lost in thought. “But what if I can’t move past it that easy?”
“Nobody said it would be easy. It’s not gonna be easy for either one of us.” My eyes twitch as I think about it all.
“But if I can’t kill my dad, you’re not allowed to kill joker, ok?”
“Ok.”
I hold out my pinky for him, something I used to do with Paul. He accepts it.
“You shouldn’t have to be scared anymore..”
“Neither should you.” He says this lovingly, although there is sadness and defeat in both our voices.

We stay like this a long time, talking about everything that’s ever gone wrong, and everything that could have been. Both of us just wanted to be loved. Both of us deserved love, but we did not get it in the ways we should have.
I fell back asleep once I heard his breathing start vibrating slower on me.

Chapter Text

It’s late afternoon by the time I get back to Bruce’s. Jason insisted on coming with me, something about wanting to watch me with Soda.
Damian isn’t out here yet, so I direct Jason to one of the side panels so I can ride. The sun is already starting to set, casting a golden hue on us all.
I smooch to Soda once to get him going.
“You think I should start taking him out at night?” I call to Jason as we trot by. Soda snorts at this offer.
“Won’t he get freaked out about the cars and sirens and all?” Jay looks disapprovingly at Soda.
“Hmmm…” I pat Soda proudly. “I think he’s pretty desensitized to all that stuff. Well, actually lemme check. Can I borrow your gun?”
“What?”
“Yeah, lemme borrow it for a sec.”
I ride by and take it from Jason.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” He says, eyeing Soda as we go by.
“Umm; no.” I aim at one of the hay bales across the arena. “It’s a terrible idea.”
“Woah….” Soda stops in place. I shoot the pistol, hitting the bale with ease. Soda half-reared, but that’s all.
“Wow! What a good boy!” I back him up and pet him, pleased with my son. He is a good horse, truly. “Oo, very, very good boy.”
I hand Jason his gun back. We both get an almost immediate text from Alfred asking what all the noise is about.
“Hmm, I wonder where Damian is?” I loop Soda around in a circle as I’m waiting. “Can you time us, I’m gonna run him one time?”
“Uhhh, yeah..” he takes out his phone, an old raggedy one that’s not updated. Both me and Roy had been on him about it the whole time Roy was with us.
I line Soda up and try something new, a whistle technique I read about the other day. His ears instantly flip back, and off we go at a good speed. We swing past the barrels, not missing a beat. My hair almost merges with his in a dark blue as we go by.

“Time?”
“Looks like 15.3.” Jason looks very stunned. Poor baby, I’ll have to explain barrel racing to him later.
“Yay! Good job, buddy.” I pet Soda more.
“I’m gonna take him for a few cool down laps and then we can go inside,” I say, brushing some stray strands from my face.
“Whatever you say, gorgeous.”
“Ok, well now you’re just overselling it.”

As I’m taking Soda back to the barn, we run into Damian.
“Oh, hey, what took you so long?” I started taking off Soda’s saddle and breast collar.
“I had some things to take care of.” Damian glares at Jason. I don’t know why they pretend to hate each other, they don’t.
“Ok, no problem.” I started brushing Soda off, while he’s waiting impatiently for treats. “Have fun with Jewel.”
Jewel perked up at his name and started leaning over the stall door. He’s gotten a lot better since Damian and I have been training him.
I let Jason take my car back home since all the girls are going out tonight.

I sit in the cave a while to chart, we’re waiting on it to get dark. Everybody has their own file, and I try to update them periodically.
“You wanna look at these crime scene pics with us?” Tim walks in munching a family-size bag of chips with Steph and Cass trailing behind.
“Oh, yeah sure.” I finish up the charts and close out.
Steph stands beside us as me and Cass squish into the spin-y chair I like.
“Lydia?” Cass asks as Tim is pulling up the files.
“Yeah?” I scoot my thigh over so she has more room.
“You know how to do piercings, right?”
“Yep. Did my own industrial and helix myself.” I point to them excitedly.
“Would I look…ok with a nose ring or something?” She says this shyly, shifting her weight in the chair.
I glance to Steph. We’ve been plotting this moment for weeks.
“A nose ring would be so hot, definitely.” I prop my feet up on the desk area. “I’ll just have to pierce it with a stud first. And I’ll have to get the needles and stuff I need.”
“Umm, can we focus on the-“ Tim gets cut off by Steph kicking his foot. Me and Cass have a lot in common, there’s no need for him to ruin the moment.
“I’ll order the stuff and then we can do it, ok?”
“Ok,” she smiles politely. Cass is almost the smallest out of all of us, but one of the strongest, as well.
“Oh, you can proceed.” I tell Tim, who’s still mildly upset about his foot.
“Ok, so-“ he clicks on one of the pictures. “Dick had to go back to Blüdhaven for a small emergency, leaving me in charge of this one.”
“You in charge or you second in command?” Steph rolled her eyes at Cass and I.
“Technically second in command, but still,” he zooms in on one of the crime scene photos. “So what do we see and not see in this picture?”
We all stare at the picture.
“This is from the scene that they went to last night?” Steph’s eyes widen as we take in the photos. It’s the five dead people, and the scene is very, very gory.
“Do we have access to the incident report?” Cass asked Tim.
“Uhh, we can get it.” He scratches the back of his head quickly.
“Let’s get it,” I squint at the one picture. “Can you zoom in on that? Yeah, the left corner.” He does, and I see it.
“Is that…an orbitoclast?” I stand up suddenly, moving Tim out of the way so I can click around myself. “No way…” my eyes dart from the bodies to the weapon.
“That’s the murder weapon?” I half-ask, half-tell Tim.
“Yeah, I think so. But they left it at the scene out in the open, meaning they were either rushed or they wanted somebody to find it.” Tim gazes intently at the photos.
Steph makes a face. “What’s an orbitoclast, again?”
“An orbitoclast was used for lobotomies a long time ago.” I explain, with some thinly-veiled disgust. “There really shouldn’t be any still available to the public anymore.” I tilt my head slightly to Tim. “Has the asylum been under investigation?”
“Yeah,” he thinks for a moment. “But obviously not enough…”
“And Bruce already knows about all of this?”
“Yeah, I’m sure he does.”
“Hmmm,” I try to come up with a plan. “Ok, well now that we know what the murder weapon is, I think at least some of us need to visit the asylum again.”
“What about the Court?” Steph asked nervously, looking down to me and Cass.
“We don’t need to worry about them right now.” I stretched my legs out, hearing the joints pop. “If anything, I can just go back down there and work something out with them again.”
“Ha, ‘work something out’.” Cass smirks.
“I think let’s just do what we can to catch Scarecrow, and the Joker, and then we can go from there.” I flick my carabiner-chain necklace. “I’m not even gonna bother with my dad right now, as long as he’s not burning down anything else.”
Steph twirls and leans against the large desk, spanning one whole corner of the cave. I think looking at the pictures is making her sick.
“I’ll add to the board then.” Tim takes a pen and goes to our evidence/investigation board, writing even more things on it.
“Ok, so what are the main questions we need to find out?” He calls to us, holding up the pen.
“Wait, what about those samples y’all got?” I almost forgot about those.
“They’re still here. We haven’t looked at them yet.” Tim still holds the pen up.
“Ok, so first question is what’s in the tubes?” Steph asks pointedly.
“Next question is why did five random people all just get killed for seemingly no reason?” I ask, more toward Steph than Tim.
“And where are Scarecrow and the Joker?” Cass added. Tim writes as fast as he can go.
“Oh, and where’s my dad and what’s he actually up to?”
“And-“
“Wait, give me a second.” Tim writes furiously on the board.
“And we need to keep tabs on Slade.” I added quickly. “Oh also, can you get me those coroner reports?”
Tim eventually gives up writing that much. “Yeah, they’re in the drawer.”
“Ok, I’ll look at ‘em later.”
“We need our own group chat.” Steph says, while glancing from me to Cass.
“Ok, sure.”
I get a ding from my phone and see she named the chat ‘Our dads are cuckoo-nutso’. I can’t help but laugh, way too much.
“Definitely.” Was the only word I got out between our laughing. Poor Tim stood in the corner by the board, gazing at us in horror.
“Ahhhh…ok, anyways.” I get back to the facts of these cases. “So, we also need to investigate the asylum, ourselves. Since the police here are apparently useless.”
“They do their best.” Tim says defensively.
I consider it. “Hmmm, I guess.”
“So who’s in charge of what?” Steph comes up beside me to look at the board.
“I can handle what’s in the tubes and the reports from the morgue…for now.” I turn to Tim. “But if anything comes up I wanna be involved.”
“Deal.” Tim shrugs, facing Steph partially. “You and Cass can locate Scarecrow. Wait on Joker, he’s too dangerous right now. And then I’ll handle the asylum investigation.”
“What about this case though?” I point to the photos on the Bat computer.
“We can all look over that one.”
“Ok, fair enough.” I look to Steph and Cass for their approval. Cass nods, and Steph shrugs. “I’m gonna go organize my side of the cave, can y’all bring us some ice cream or something? I’m so hungry.” I whine, my stomach growling a little.
“You wanna take my car?” Steph asked Cass.
“Oh yeah, sure.” She leaves our favorite spin-y chair, and they head out. I go over to my own little hospital section, I have a lot to do. Alfred keeps it organized, but I need to do some inventory counts.
I blast trashy early 2000’s music while I work, with a hearty mix of Maroon 5. Me and Kon love to annoy Tim by singing their breakup songs every time we ride somewhere together.
“Mmm, ok….let’s see….definitely a shit-ton more sedatives….lets do amoxicillin, too…..”
I write everything down, pulling med cabinet drawers in and out.
Somebody brushes my shoulder, and I screech and jump, sending a little burst of flames on the ground. My chain hits my chest with a little clink.
“What?” I take my AirPods out.
“May I ask you for something, Blo-I mean, Lydia?” Damian asks. He doesn’t sound as aggressive as he usually pretends to be.
“Oh, yeah sure, but don’t scare me like that.” I shift past him to open the other med cabinet.
“Will you..teach me what you know?”
“Huh?” I’m confused. “What I know?”
“Your medical knowledge.”
“Ohhhh…yeah, why? Do you wanna be a nurse or something?” I half-joked.
“No, but maybe a surgeon or a doctor.” He says seriously.
I lift my eyebrows slightly. “Oh, ok. Well I don’t know that much yet since I’m still newer.” I gesture around the ‘room’. “Everything I do here is pretty experimental, Y’know?”
“Yes.” He says shortly, never looking away.
“Ok, well just lemme know what you wanna learn and I’ll teach you what I can.” I say awkwardly, continuing my counts. I turned to ask if he wanted to help identify the samples from the tubes, but he’s already gone. They all do that, but so do I so I can’t complain too much.
I’m able to get a tiny dot of it on a slide and send it through one of the computer’s many extensions. I don’t know why nobody else thought of that already. They probably had, but wanted to pretend like they were giving me something to do.
“Identify?” I ask.
“Identified: Fear Toxin with traces of Joker Venom.” The computer says in a robotic voice.
“Ok,” I say slowly, “But what do those have in them exactly?”
The computer takes a few moments, but then:
“Unspecified hallucinogens, unspecified neurotoxins, specified hydrogen cyanide, specified nitrous oxide, specified methamphetamine, specified….”
The computer listed off a few more things.
My lip twitches, all this stuff together is horrifyingly bad.
“Symptoms?”
The computer thinks again. Then: “Symptoms can include, but are not limited to: delusions, hallucinations, homicidal tendencies, mania, severe aggression, muscle spasms, sudden death, paralysis….” It continues to list off a few more things.

“Well, shit.” I mutter to myself, then turn the computer off. Scarecrow and the Joker obviously are responsible, we’ve already concluded that, but why? These five victims truly were random, all just coworkers hosting a party. But the question is- was one of the suspects there to inject them with this, or was it given off-site?

I write a few more notes down on the board and wait for Cass and Steph. We eat our ice cream relatively happily, considering all things. We sit on the floor of the library, in the comfort of the lamp light.
“So guys,” I say between bites. “I looked up what’s in that toxin in the computer, and it says it’s like a crazy mix of all this stuff.”
“Like what?” Steph says, the spoon still halfway in her mouth.
“Like literal meth and all kinds of crazy stuff. I personally think the victims were set up. Like they gave one of the victims the toxin somehow, and then the victim went bananas and killed off everyone else.” I pause, rethinking my statement. “The only thing that doesn’t add up is in the reports, it says everybody had traces of an ‘unknown substance’ in them. So it technically couldn’t have happened that way….”
“What if the victims were somehow forced to inject each other?” Cass said suddenly. “Or maybe, somebody injected them all?”
“Mmmm, yeah.” Steph puts the lid on her pint.
“You’re right,” I agree. “That would make sense if they maybe had to inject each other. It’s just hard because there’s almost no evidence of who it could have been making them do it. I feel like the Joker would have more of a signature thing left at the crime scene…” I realize it as I say it. “Wait a minute, there is a signature thing at the crime scene. The orbitoclast could count as some kind of sign, since we already know it’s most likely from the asylum. But what kind of message is he trying to say?”
“Let’s just give up for tonight.” Steph lays her head on Cass. “I hate talking about these kind of cases too much.”
“I know,” I scoot in, encircling them both. “This one is a really bad one.”

Chapter Text

“So basically, whatever this is, it’s making them freak out and kill each other.” I click back over the pictures as my presentation to the rest of the group. “Also, it’s apparently making them not feel pain or something.” I glance to the morgue reports. “Between twenty to thirty stab wounds for each one. From the orbitoclast. Which-“ I paused to glance at the murder weapon. “Not all of them have sharp points, most don’t. But this one does.”

“There was a second attack.” Bruce comes from the shadows of the cave, and takes my place in front of everyone else. “But this time we have audio footage.”
He played us the audio as I sat back down by Cass. It started off with a sudden bang, and screaming. Then a lot of ‘no’s’ and ‘helps’. I side eyed Steph in fear as we listened. This audio is reminding me of things I don’t want to remember.
But, we did catch the Joker’s voice at the very, very end. Briefly. Bruce had to separate the actual voice from the rest of the audio for us to understand.
‘We have a big surprise planned’ he said, with way too much delight for my liking. I haven’t been mentioning a lot of this to Jason, and he hasn’t been asking.
Steph nudges me quietly, and I lean my head in close to her. “What does Jason think about all this? I heard you told him…”
“I think he’ll be ok.” I whispered back. “But I’m watchin’ it.”
Steph gives me one last look as Bruce tells us an updated plan. Basically it’s identical to the one we had, except that he will be catching the Joker directly. He explains that he doesn’t want any of us around the Joker, if he can help it.
“He’s too dangerous, especially when teamed up with Scarecrow like this.”

The rest of us will fan out and do our personal investigations on the murders and the asylum.
“But who is he sending the message to?” Duke asked. “You?” He gestured to Bruce. “Or Jason?”
Bruce didn’t say anything, but instead looked down at the computer’s expansive keyboard.
After our meeting, I return to my section to find everything has been completely replenished.
“Thank you!” I call to Bruce, or whoever’s left out there. I also brought some extra stuff for my side- some incense, a weighted blanket, and a star nightlight. It’s one I wish I had when I was little.
I leave my section to find Bruce with Alfred. They are alone, and they look very saddened. I don’t know what I can do to help, but I’ll try.
“How’s your foot?” I play with my belt chain casually, so they don’t think I’m just being nosy.
“Better.” Bruce doesn’t like making full sentences, does he?
“Well y’know the average healing time for surgeries like that is between eight weeks to months.” I dip my head subtly. “Just be careful.”
The corner of his mouth twitches, for a fraction of a second. “I will.”
“Bye.” I put on my jacket to leave. “Bye, Alfred.”
“See you soon, Miss Lydia.” They continue their discussion as I leave.

I arrive home to Jason, he’s pacing again.
“What’s wrong, love?” I do what I can to deflect him, which is typically throwing myself at him in some way. I try to hug him like Selina does with Bruce, wrapping my arms around his neck and arching my body into his. This seems to snap him out of whatever he’s in, and I am pleased.
“I…I was just thinking.” His hands run down my arms, finding their way to my waist.
“We’ve done enough of that for today.” I wrap one leg around his, waiting for him to lift me up.
“Yes, yes we have.” He does just what I wanted, his eyes flickered down to my waist.
“New outfit?”
“Yep. Got it just for you to tear off.” I brush my nose against his cheek, exhaling a small stream of smoke onto us both.
“You know I love when you do that.” His voice rumbles against me comfortingly.

“I live to serve.” I can’t help but giggle softly as I get carried to the bed. It’s one of our favorite places, you see. For multiple reasons. I know I don’t typically mention what we do in detail, but this time I will, yes. You need to know- he is mine and I am his.
I eagerly take off his shift while he takes off mine, tossing it in the bathroom. The pants he’s gonna have to be more careful with, they’re expensive.
Flames ripple down my arms in excitement, but he dodges around.
I take my own belt off, slinging it towards the edge of the bed. The pants get ripped off, but I’m not that mad.
“Oh, this is gonna be fun…” I say between kisses. It will be very fun, yes.
I scoot back on the bed and slide my legs partially up, bending them at the knees. My stomach and chest rise and fall more rapidly than usual.
“I concur.” Jay wraps one hand around my hip, pulling me even closer. I begin my kiss-biting, something I very much enjoy doing.
“Please me.” I whisper sincerely, some strands of my hair falling over my eyes. My eyes can barely flutter open in the anticipation of it.
His weight partially lifts off me, and shifts down.
“Do you want me to?” He asks, almost teasingly. His hand moves toward the inside of my thigh, pushing it further out.
“Don’t make me have to beg.” Flames run from my arms to my breasts, but I try to contain them the best I can. “I’m gonna burn the sheets if you don’t act now..”
“Mmm, I’ll buy us new sheets.” His tongue trails down my thigh, towards my clit. Now, I usually don’t like to get carried away with these things, since it’s our personal business, but I will continue-
My back arches involuntarily, leaving me gasping as he does in fact, please me. I can’t help but to grab some of his hair, brushing through it as calmly as I can. Which isn’t calm at all.
It comes upon me so suddenly, I don’t know if I can hold back.
“Jay,” I gasp out, my ribs moving raggedly under the skin. “I think we’re gonna have to-“ I moan again instinctively, at this point. “Gonna have to get a towel or something-“ Air escaped my lungs again. His hands curve around my hip, as I grasp wildly for anything, anything to hold onto.
I decide his arm will be enough, so I grip onto the muscle as best I can. Then I realize I’m using nails, and have to reluctantly release. Speaking of release…
“Jay,” I choked out breathlessly. “Im serious-“ he doesn’t stop, and I feel a sudden sharp heat within myself, trailing straight down. Fluid emits from me, and I try desperately to apologize.
“I am so sorry, I-“ I try to lean up to make sure he’s ok, but I get pushed back onto the pillows. My legs tense up, I see the shadows of the muscles.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” His hand clamps onto my arm, pushing me further against the bed.
“Are you sure? I- mmmphh..” Jay puts a firm hand over my mouth, and I blink up at him questioningly.
“What happened to no thinking?” His body presses into mine, weighing me down. I enjoy it, it’s calming.
I sigh, letting my legs slide somewhat down from their tensed position.
“Mmm…?”
“Shhh…”
I let him begin the actual act. In the cult, I was always taught that having sex is an ascension of two souls, but merging together. I still believe this, partially.

I close my eyes, accepting every inch, every motion, that is given to me. Now that I’m older, I know that this is something to be enjoyed, not endured. Some people still don’t understand that, and it makes me sad for them.

“Are you ok?” He asks. I open my eyes to see his pupils dilated into mine.
“Yes, I’m ok.” My hips rock back and forth slowly with each time. I try not to tense up as much, but it’s such a bad habit I’ve had to break over the years. I trail my arms around his back, sending my fingers flitting around.
Heat waves wash over me again, and I moan as quietly as I can while it happens.
“Did you…?” My lashes move down as I ask.
“Yes,” his fingers graze over my hips and stomach as he slowly pulls himself out.
I exhale a sigh of relief as I pulls me onto him. I lay on my side, wrapping one of my legs around him.
I realize I left quite a lot of bruises from my kiss-biting. I’m not sure what the kids call them these days, but it’s typically just something younger people do.
“Oh, I’m sorry, baby-“ I reach up to him and try to start thumbing them out with heat. Maybe the blood will disperse a little faster like that.
“Don’t be sorry,” he moved my hand away and instead curved his around my hip and thigh. “You’re amazing…”
I hold his gaze peacefully before arching my neck against him, like a cat does to a kind hand. This is very nice, and I enjoyed it a lot.
“Really?” I look up at him lovingly, but I have such a hard time believing these things sometimes. In the cult, I was a piece of meat, a cow or a pig. Nothing more. I never want to feel like that again.
“Yeah, really..” he kisses my head, and I get pet for a long time, which usually makes me fall asleep pretty quick.

I wake up to a few different types of knocks in the morning. Ughhhh… can’t we just get five seconds to ourselves?

“Huh? Who’s that?” Jay glances up towards the door.
“Don’t worry about it honey, you go back to sleep.” He rolls over, and I stumble up to go give hell to whoever is bothering us. My sleeping mask is halfway off my head, and I have no idea if I’m naked or not. I check the mirror by the door to be safe, ok no pants but the shirt’s long enough. I think we’re good.
I open the door rubbing my eyes, to prove to whoever it is that they’re bothering me.
“Lydia?” It’s Tim, Steph, and Cass.
“What, guys? It’s like 7:00 am what the fuck?” I groaned. I don’t mean this in an aggressive way, but what the fuck.
“What are you wearing?” Steph is holding back a laugh, I can tell.
“Don’t play.” My eyes snap open. “We just wanted to sleep for a least an extra two hours, what do y’all want?”
“We were just gonna give you some updates on the case.” Tim’s face is getting hot, I can tell, as well.
“Ok, well no updates before 9:00.” I close the door on them to mild protests.
“Ain’t no way…” I wander back to bed, snuggling in to the puffy pillows and comforter.

“Who was that?” Jay grunts, still half asleep.
“Just Tim and the girls wanting to give me updates or something.” I put the blanket further over my head, it’s how I’ve always liked to sleep. Jay thought I suffocated myself that first night, which I thought was very funny.
“I’m gonna kill him.”
“Ughhh; we’ll kill him later…”

We sleep for quite a while longer, and when I finally get up and stretch I see they’ve been blowing up the group chat.
“I think we’re gonna have to go shopping.” I lift up part of the sheets, which are essentially ashes on one half.

I call Steph on the way to the store, we needed a few groceries anyways. I wear my favorite maroon sweater with some tapered pants and boots. Can’t forget my chain, I run to grab it as we’re leaving.
“Dude, no way y’all just busted up at my house that early in the morning.” I rip the steering wheel around, traffic is always bad, but today it’s especially bad. Jason hangs on for dear life.
“Sorry, we just wanted to give you updates like you wanted!” Steph giggles.
“Ok, first of all- y’all could have given me updates-Hey!” A car pulled out in front of me, so I had to honk a few times. “Anyways, y’all could have given me updates at the house later or somethin’. But we’re going shopping right now so I’m not gonna check any texts or anything until we get back.”
“Oooo- shopping for what?” She teased.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said bluntly, then hung up.
Now you see, neither me nor Jason is very, um, ‘beloved’ by the public, so we wear a lot of sunglasses and things inside so nobody recognizes us. I’m also not a fan of cops and I don’t think he is either.
“Ooh, how bout these?” I spot some very pretty black ones on the shelf.
“I’m paying?” He must have seen the tags. We act like we don’t have money, but we do, kind of.
“Yep. You caused it, so you gotta buy the new ones.”

We wrap up buying the groceries, then I head to Bruce’s. It’s such a drag, the drive isn’t bad but it’s burning a ton of my gas.

Chapter Text

“Hey, I got the stuff to pierce your nose with.” I called to Cass when I saw her arrive. Not only do I have the stuff, but everything is all set up.
“Can you hold off? We’re about to go over the details.” Tim whined, holding a new stack of papers.
“No, just tell me while we do it.” I usher Cass to sit down,sensing Tim’s disapproval from a mile away. “What? I can multitask.”
“Ok, so first thing- we got new camera footage of the asylum.” He clicks around on the computer in the background. I can’t actually multitask very well, I have no idea what we’re talking about.
“Ok, which side you want it on?”
“Mmm, what about the right side?” She half points to it.
“Ok, perfect.” I dot a tiny spot with the marker.
“Are you guys listening?”
“Yes!” We both call, although I roll my eyes afterwards. Cass hides a laugh.
“Ok, so the asylum footage- what about it?” I ask as I try to locate the gloves. Found em.
“So, there’s footage that shows some inmates along with a few employees going through a door that’s technically not on the official floor plan.”
“Ohhh….” I glance back to the footage on the computer. Yep; sure enough they’re going back and forth through a door apparently located in the basement level. “Wait, why would the asylum even have a basement to begin with?”
“For storing supplies, allegedly…”
“Hmmm…” I glance to Cass. “Do you think that placement is good?”
“Looks fine to me.”

“Ok.” I call back to Tim as I get the piercing needle ready. “So nobody has investigated them like this whole time? Also, how long do you think they’ve been using that door for the tunnels?”
“It’s hard to say. We’ll have to go in person and find out, honestly.” He half-glances at us from across the cave.
“Ok, ready?”
“Yep.” She holds her breath calmly.
“Ok, 1,2,3…” I push the needle though, and then the piercing jewelry. “Ok, perfect! That looks so good.”
“I love it,” she checks it with her phone camera. “I can’t wait to show Steph!”
“Yeah, she’s gonna love it.” I gaze at her happily, pleased with my work.
“Oh also,” I call back to Tim, suddenly remembering what I was gonna say. “I probably forgot to mention this earlier, but those samples y’all got have like super high dosages…like super high.” I start taking a bunch of saline syringes from the drawer. “Per 5 milliliters, some of the counts on the drugs were like over a hundred milligrams. And that was per thing.”
“So you’re saying…”
I turn to him, almost finished with Cass. “I’m sayin’ the dosages of them are so high, it would only take probably a milliliter or less to actually kill somebody.” I face Cass again, handing her some of the saline syringes.
“Just use these twice a day to clean it, and then make sure you rotate the jewelry in there so it doesn’t get all gross.”
We walk over to the board, which increases day by day.
“Do we have audio footage of the basement cam or just visual?”
“Just visual, for now. But we’re working on it.”
“Random question, but does the Joker typically use guns?” I ask, partially to both of them.
“I don’t think so..” Cass side-eyes Tim, as if he would know.
“He does sometimes, it just depends. Why do you ask?”
“Hmmm…” I stare at the board, trying to make sense of it all. “Because on one of the morgue reports, one of the guys has head trauma that would line up with being pistol-whipped possibly. I was just wonderin’ what that was about…”

He studies the board as well. “Now that you mention it, I remember seeing that on the reports, too.”
“Hmm…” I squint at Cass, seeing if she has anything to offer.
“We’ll find out soon enough.” She shrugs and starts to leave. “I’m gonna go find Steph.”
“Oo, ok I’m coming, too.” I trail her into the kitchen, where we fine Steph and Damian. I jump in front of Cass once we get there and act as if I’m presenting her.
“Wow! That looks so cute!” Steph jumps up from her chair, while Damian continues to read the paper or whatever it is that he does. We fawn over Cass, all discussing how nice it looks on her face.
“I wish I wasn’t scared of needles,” Steph finally says with a sad sigh.
“It’s really not that bad.” Cass gazes at Steph proudly.
“Yeah, it’s really not.” I agree. “When I did my industrial there was way more blood.”
“Ewww.” Steph wrinkles her nose.
“Ehhh,” I yawn, but hold it in. “What do y’all want to eat? I’m kind hungry.”
I thought Damian said something to the effect of ‘lead’, so I abruptly turned to him.
“You don’t mean that, right?” I nudged him playfully. “Hey, if you want I can teach you about leech therapy later or somethin’.”
He slightly perks up at this, but tries to hide it. I think it’s kinda funny. “Only if we get to use Drake as practice.”
I pretend to think this through carefully. “Mmm, ok. Deal!”
“What?” Tim comes into the kitchen and begins digging in the cabinets.
“Oh, we using you as practice for leech therapy later.”
Damian smirks at this and I can’t hold in laughter very well, to Tim’s horror. I hope he doesn’t think we’re too serious. Key word being ‘too’.
I put my hair up in the clip I brought and fix Steph’s up as well.
“Does anybody wanna train this afternoon?” Steph asked lazily, spinning around in one of the chairs at the island.
“Yeah, I will.” I tilt myself toward Cass. “You wanna sit this one out? I would hate if that stud got ripped out or somethin’.”
“Ok, I can keep score then.” Cass said simply, lifting herself from one of the chairs.
“Ok,” I follow them back downstairs once again.

“You ready to lose?” Steph points on of the staffs at me as we circle.
“You know I never lose, girl.” I low myself down, shifting weight on each foot as I do. Everybody knows I do this part, so it’s what comes afterwards that I have to make unpredictable.
“Are you sure you don’t want any practice weapon? At all?” Steph questions as I move in.
“Ehhh, I’m pretty sure.” I swiftly run at her, sliding to my knees as she lifts what I like to call ‘the beat stick’. I reach up for her arm as I slide, and I’m able to grab her and whip myself around. It takes her down, but she still has the staff.
“Pookie; you can’t be so aggressive.” Steph smiles as she tries to hit me with it- I dodge of course, returning to an upright position. I’ll try something else with her.
“Sorry, pookie,” I grunt. I usually don’t talk during training. “Lemme try something else.” I rush at her to her surprise, flipping over her in my attempt to grab the stick. I successfully do, and we both tumble to the ground. Our muscles scramble in sync as we both try to get control of the staff. My chain clinks as I move. I end up winning, and then I decide to half-choke her out with it.
“You give up yet?” I lean in while trying not to laugh, some strands falling in my face. “My delicious, gorgeous queen sugarplum?”
“Ok, ok, fine!” Steph cackles. “Just no more torture with the gross names!”
I instantly get off, helping her up. “Well that didn’t last very long.”

“Let’s try again, and this time just use the damn staff.” She tosses me one excitedly.

“Y’know I’m really not good with these.” I twirl it in my hand, faking boredom. I raise it in one hand, and we begin again. We clash gracefully, each blocking each other’s hits. She finally gets me in the leg, and I hit the ground with a sharp ‘plop’ on the mat. Lucky for me I’m honestly a better fighter on the ground. I sweep my legs around, and catch her by one ankle.
“That wasn’t very fair.” She strangles out as we roll around, each trying to get on top of the other.
“How so? You lost fair and square.” I’m able to launch her off of myself with my knees.
“Not yet I haven’t!” She whips back toward me, I’m somehow able to dodge and sling her down by the shoulder.
“Mmmm, I think so-“ I’m always pretty successful when it comes to this stuff. The boys are just a lot bigger, that’s why they have to win sometimes. I could easily beat them if it came down to it.

After a few more rounds, and yes- I did let her win one- we sit down to cool off. I put my knees up and set the water bottle between. Steph sits across from me with Cass, laying down and chugging water.
“Was it really that dramatic?” I say as I’m sipping my own water.
“Yes,” Steph pants. “There’s no way I’m this out of shape.”
“You’re not out of shape at all.” Cass says sweetly.
“No, she’s not.” I agree, brushing some hair away from my eyes. I think now is a good time to ask them about things. I don’t know that much about them really.
“So our dads are really all cuckoo-nutso, huh?” I stare up at the ceiling of the cave, watching the bats as they sleep.
“Yeah.” Steph stares up at Cass as she says it. “Mine was never around,” she continued. “And then he ended up being some villain we had to take down. It was a real drag.” She says this nonchalantly, but I understand she still think about it.
“Mine….mine made me kill someone.” Cass says quietly. “He never cared about me.”
“Neither did mine.” Steph held her hand solemnly.
I gaze at them lovingly. We’re just young women, and why we are how we are is partially due to shitty men. It’s just sad, the whole thing-truly.
I made a flame bunny, something I recently found out I could do, and sent it over to them. It hopped and played, like Matisse and Plushy do.
“But we have each other, right?”
“Right.” Steph sniffs, looking to Cass.
“Right.” Cass looks from Steph to me, and in that moment they remind me of my sisters.

Chapter Text

I determined that I should spend the night that night, so I texted Jay.

Hey, I’m gonna spend the night with Steph and Cass tn :(

Ok, no prob

Ok, love you

Love you too

I do go check on Soda, before heading in for the night.
“Hey baby!” I kiss to him and he leans his neck over the stall door waiting for me.
“Hello, psycho.” I say glumly to Jewel, who also leans his head over the door. I don’t much like thoroughbreds, they’re too bite-y.
“Awww, hims my squishy baby.” I pet his face up and down, trying to detangle the raggedy mane. I haven’t really detangled it in a few days, and his is pretty long. I’ll have to give him a bath tomorrow.
I fed him extra and made sure he’s all cozy for the night, then I headed back in to our room. We all spend the night in the same one, so it’s easier to watch movies and stuff. Plus, when I say ‘room’, I mean like triple the size of an average room.
“So what are we gonna watch tonight?” Steph asked, throwing herself onto the bed. We were already in pajamas, Steph likes the matching sets and me and Cass just wear whatever is laying around.
“Horror?” I suggested. “I haven’t seen that new ‘Smile’ one yet.”
“Me either,” Cass says to Steph. “Either that or we could watch ‘Coraline’.”
“Mmm, I already watched ‘Coraline’ the other day.” I groan.
“What about ‘Sex and the City’?” Steph suggests.
“Nooo…” Cass and I both whined. Neither of us likes movies like that, funnily enough.
“Fine,” Steph gives up. “We can just click around until we find something good.”
We scroll on Netflix for a while, and end up agreeing on a new cartoon that looks good.
Steph ends up being the first one to sleep, snoring insanely loud.
“Do you wanna sleep on the couch?” I whispered to Cass after the movie is done.
“Yeah.” She rolls her eyes towards Steph and we laugh as quietly as we can.
We slept for a long time on the couch, Alfred had to wake us all up while he was cleaning.
“Oh, I should probably get going.” I checked the time, it’s about an hour later than when I wanted to head out.
“You’re not even gonna stay for pancakes?” Steph gave me the puppy eyes.
“Alfred, did you even agree to making pancakes?” I ask him, still looking at Steph amusedly.
“Not that I was aware of, Miss Lydia.” Alfred dusts everything precisely, not missing a single spot.
I try to compromise. “Just lemme go home to Jay for a little bit and then why don’t we do brunch somewhere?”
“Ughhh, ok.” Steph turns away, still pretending to be sad.
“You’ll be ok for a few hours.” I pick up my bag from the bedroom and put on my jacket. “Bye, Alfred! Bye, Cass.” Cass is still fast asleep on the couch. I don’t know how either one of them can sleep so much.

“We gotta go visit Roy.” Jay said as soon as I made it in the door.
“Huh?” My eyebrows twitched as I went to pick up Matisse, cuddling him and his largeness. Matisse has grown increasingly large over the last month or so, I suspect he’s at least ten pounds now.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“He asked for us.”
“Well if you wanna go just be safe and-“
“No, he wants both of us.”
I rear my head subtly in confusion. I still feel mildly guilty about what happened, I would hate to come between anything they have.
“Why? I don’t want to intervene with your…friendship or anything.”
“Please come.” His eyes looked pleading, and I don’t want to upset him.
“Ok…” I started slowly, “I can wait in the car or something, but we should bring him tribute.” My eyes flash to the kitchen, but we don’t have a lot of good tribute to offer. I also don’t know if the rehab would allow tribute.
“We don’t have any tribute do we?” He asked, sensing my frustration.
“No, we’re gonna have to go find some.” I put a hand on my hip and look around, but no tribute appears.

Jason claims not to have any idea what he likes, but as soon as we enter the store he bee-lines for some comics he says Roy ‘might’ like. Huh- they’re the same ones I like to read.
We ride over to it, it’s a short distance from our apartment. He holds my leg as we drive, but I think it’s more comforting to him than for me. I’ll allow it.
“How long has it been?” I ask softly as we drive, holding the comics.
“Almost a month.” He doesn’t look up from straight ahead, I let him drive my car this time.
“Wow,” I see my eyes reflect off the window. “It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long.”
It starts pouring by the time we get there, but it seems like a nice place. At least from my perspective. I briefly wonder who’s paying for this-it doesn’t seem like Roy has a ton of money right now. But Jason and I have separate accounts, and neither of us gets involved with each other’s finances. It’s not my business if he’s paying or not.
“I really can just wait in the car..” I offered weakly.
He gave me a look, and I knew immediately I should go in.
We find Roy in a sitting area slightly apart from the rest after we check in. Gotta use made up names, obviously. I settle on ‘Ari’ and Jason goes with the more subtle, and more ridiculous ‘Mason’. I don’t ask questions anymore, to be honest.
We approach him in silence apart from the “Hey, buddy.” he sends Jason’s way. I hesitate to sit down, this is a little awkward for everybody.
“Um, are you gonna sit down or what?” Roy shifts his position in his own chair.
I glance to Jay and smile the best I can. “Yeah, I guess.”
Jason slides the comics his way. “So how’ve you been?”
“Ehh, could be worse.” Roy gestures around, staring down one of the prettier nurses walking by. “Good food, and good views.”
I snort at this. “‘Good views’ is crazy.” I say, covering my face already. Roy and I pretend like we don’t have the same humor, but we mostly do. It’s fun to annoy Jason with.
“I see you’ve been having fun.” Roy glances at the half-hidden bruises on Jason. “Training or-“
“Roy.” Jay says sharply, pretending to be annoyed with him and covering himself up more with his jacket.
“Yeah, let’s go with that.” I try to hold in smoke that I was about to let out. I don’t like people to know I’m meta.
“You guys been doing anything else fun?” He asks interestedly. It almost makes me feel bad we left him here, but he does look a lot better already. More alive, somehow.
I tilt my head partially to Jason, letting him talk first. I don’t want to dictate the conversation in any way if I can help it.
“Just working on a few things.” He says shortly. I try my best to give him ‘the mom look’ and press my knee into his. He’s the one that wanted to come here, now he’s gonna have to at least make an effort with the conversation.
“Well that’s boring.” Roy rolls his eyes and throws up his hands in defeat. “What about you, Liddie?”
I sigh hopelessly. “I don’t think you’re gonna wanna hear about anything I’ve been doing. And what’s with the nicknames?”
“It’s his thing,” Jay sets his arm over the chair rail. He can barely fit in the chair, and even me and Roy are having to really squish into ours.
Roy continues. “Well as long as it doesn’t have to do with shit or having pee or something thrown at you, then I’m all ears.”
“Mmm,..well I did get to see a really bad case of gangrene the other day.” I say smugly.
“You’re the only girl I’ve ever seen who would get excited about gangrene.” Jason turns away, but I can tell he’s smiling.
“What can I say, I have issues .” I cross my legs and set one arm over the back of the chair. These chairs really hurt my ass, they’re not comfy at all.
“I think we all do.” Roy says, shifting himself more to Jason. I can’t tell if they wanna talk alone or not, I’m gonna assume yes.
“I’m gonna let y’all talk for a little while-“ I say, cocking my thumb toward the exit.
“No, don’t leave me alone with him.” Roy whines dramatically pointing to Jason. “I’ll die of boredom if nothing else.”
I glance at Jason teasingly. “He’s not that boring.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re the one who gets to f-“
“Roy!” This time Jason is the one to give Roy the mom look, and I think it’s hilarious.
We talk for some time, about little things here and there. Finally, Jason and I think it’s getting late, and we decide to leave.
“Bye!” I wave happily to Roy, feeling less guarded than before.
“When I get outta here we’re gonna go have fun together, right?” He calls to us.
“Depends on your definition of fun.” Jason tells him, putting on his own jacket.
I wait for Jason, and we leave feeling at least a little better about the situation. That is, until I got the call on the way home.
“Miss Lydia?” It’s Alfred, and he sounds very concerned.
“Yeah? Is everything ok?” I ask, glancing to Jason.
“I’m afraid not. We need you here as urgently as possible. It’s Master Tim- he was somehow attacked by the Joker while out on patrol..” I heard what sounded like screaming in the background.
“Shit.” I gestured for Jason to turn on the road going to Bruce’s. “We’re on the way.” I could feel my eyes blazing wildly with worry. Why was he even going out by himself?
As soon as we park at Bruce’s, I rush out of the car and sprint inside to the cave. Some people are already down there. I see that Dick is back already.
“What’s going on?” I ask desperately, hearing maniacal laughs and screams echoing in the cave.
“Lydia, help!”
Everyone is doing all different things. Dick and Duke are holding Tim back, who is wildly clawing and screaming at Steph and Cass. They look to me for help, and I have no idea what’s going on.
“What do we do, Blood?” Damian asked me as urgently as he’s willing to.
“Don’t call me ‘Blood’.” I told him firmly.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I run up to the med cabinet, whipping out whatever I can find and slamming it onto the bedside table.
“What happened?” I ask Dick aggressively as I move, my body twisting and whirling around the ‘room’.
“He told Steph he was going out and then wouldn’t answer his phone. Thankfully Damian was following him-“ Dick grunted as Tim tried to buck away. “And found him like this.”
I turn to Damian as I start setting up the random selection of supplies that I thought would help. “Did you see what happened?” My eyes blaze with fury, no way this piece of shit Joker just messed with my family.
“No,” he said quickly. “I just found him like this. He was going to kill someone.” Damian glared at Tim, as if it were his fault he’s going bananas.
“Fuck!” Flames slide over my arms and onto the floor at my feet. “Ok,” I inhale deeply. “Everybody who’s not helping, get out.” I try to say as calmly as I can. “If I think about this too much, I’m gonna lose my shit.” I glare at Dick promptly. “Where’s Bruce?”
“He’s on his way. We already told him as soon as it happened.”
“Ok, and nobody saw how much he got hit with?” I realize I’m waving my arms around too much, and let them drop slightly.
“What do you mean ‘hit’ with?” Duke asked, his arms rippling as he tries to hold a still-screeching Tim.
“Those damn samples!” I point to them at their place on the counter. “They have a shit-ton of all kinds of crazy stuff in them. Like very, very poisonous stuff!” I take a deep breath again, exhaling a large amount of smoke.
“Ok, you stay, you stay, and you stay-“ I point to Dick, Duke, and Jason. “Everybody else out, now.”
“But-“ Damian tries to protest.
“No,” I face him more aggressively than I wished I had. “I don’t want you to have to see this.” I put a hand on his shoulder, mostly to calm myself down. “Go be with your sisters, ok? And don’t argue.”
He doesn’t argue, and they leave the room, but I’m sure they’re still in the cave listening.
“Ok, fuck.” I whip around. “I don’t know what to do.” I put a hand on my forehead, trying to think. Flames are flowing around the floor now, burning it slowly.
“Ok, I’ve got narcan, I’ve got… can’t do the ketamine, no, we’ll have to try something else..”
“Lydia, we can’t just hold him like this all day,” Dick tells me, voice raised.
“You’re right, you’re right.” I have to pull myself together, they’re looking to me for guidance. And I have no idea what the hell I’m doing, especially with no other medical staff here.”
“Ok, first thing- we’re gonna have to get him down better. Duke, help me with his arms.”
I get a short distance from Tim, trying to make sure he doesn’t know what’s going on..hopefully.
“Are you in there or not?” I ask him urgently, searching his eyes for any sign. No, he’s not there. The pupils are almost completely dilated, and all that streams from him is a weird mix of scream-laughing.
“Ok, well then I’m not gonna feel that bad about this.” I rip the restraints from the bottom drawer, tossing the two lower ones to Jason.
“Click them under the bed, there should be a little-“ I gasp as I almost get kicked. “There should be a place for them to tie in.”
“What the hell is going on?” Jason asked me as we’re wrangling Tim’s legs. Dick and Duke have the pleasure of dealing with the upper half.
“It’s the serum that Scarecrow and joker made,” I climb onto the bed partially, pulling up tightly on one of the straps. “It’s got some of the wildest stuff I’ve ever seen in it. I didn’t want to say this around them, but I don’t know what the survival rate is.” I turn to Dick in fear. “I don’t have any information on what it can do besides what the computer told me.”
Tim claws at Dick, and I have to think even faster than I already was. “Ok, swap places.” I shift myself closer to one arm, while Dick holds down the rest.
“Why is he so strong all of the sudden?” Dick growled out, barely able to push Tim down.
“It has something to do with the drugs.” I click the restraint around the bottom of the bed. “It makes them basically immune to pain and all kinds of other stuff.” I put my foot up against the bed for support as I pull on the strap as tight as it will go. “Super aggressive and the computer said something about being homicidal.” I glance up to them all, Tim still making loud noises.
“I’m not taking any chances.” I tell Jason, who stares in a mix of fear and concern.
“Ok, what now?” Duke is able to back away, breathing heavily.
I frantically look around for my stuff. “Now, I don’t know. My plan was to just start with the basics.” I start filling up one of the syringes I laid out with the narcan. “I don’t know if this is gonna do anything.” I say partially to them, partially to myself.
“Can somebody go find Bruce, please?”
“I’m on it, if you’re sure you’ll be ok for a few minutes.” Dick lowered his eyes to me as I rushed to Tim’s arm.
“Uhh, I’ll be ok as I can be.” Tim starts wildly snapping at me. “What the literal fuck-stop.” I tell him, although that won’t help.
I incline my head to Dick again. “Just hurry.”
My eyes flutter up to Duke. “Can you help me with this arm? He’s slinging around too much- I’m not gonna be able to get it.”
Duke rushes to my side, pressing a lot of his weight onto Tim’s arm. I inject him the best I can, and toss the first needle in our bin quickly.
“Where’s the monitor?”
“Right here.”
“Get him on it, now. I need to see what the vitals are.”
I grab the monitor and sling it towards myself to see the screen.
“Ok…ok..” I rapidly look everything over. “Pulse rate is 138, oxygen is fine, but respiration rate isn’t reading, pressure is 175/103…” I list these off to myself, I know nobody else knows what I’m talking about.
“Let’s do propranolol and maybe a few other things to get the vitals down.” I tell Duke.
“Uhh, let’s do it.” He says nervously. “Is he gonna be ok?”
I pause shortly and consider this. “I don’t know.” I start ripping through the drawers again, more harshly. “Bruce needs to get here, now.”
“I’m right here.” Bruce appeared in the make-shift doorway. “Damian told me what happened.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I repeat to him, ripping open one of the kits that is an antidote to cyanide poisoning. I have no clue how this will interact with the narcan. “I’m just gonna guess on a lot of this stuff.”
Bruce says nothing, but instead pulls up one of the only chairs in the room and sits by Tim. “Is there anything I can do?” He asks, he says it calmly but I hear the fear in his voice. The anger.
“No,” I start opening supplies for the IV. “I don’t even think there’s that much I can do.”
Tim has stopped shrieking as much, but the vitals are still out of whack.
“Duke, why don’t you go check on everybody else?” I ask him, but I’m heavily implying for him to leave. Nobody needs to see this is something escalates. “Don’t tell them any updates.” I clenched my jaw, almost involuntarily.
“Ok.” Duke breaks his gaze from Tim and leaves reluctantly. Jason is still here, hovering just beyond my workspace.
I do all I can, I load up multiple things, I start some fluids, and I wait. That’s all I can do. Bruce and Jason say nothing, they only watch. When I feel like I’ve done everything, I sit by the bed.
“Bruce?”
His eyes flicker toward mine.
“I’m scared.”
“I am, too.”
He must have seen the surprise on my face. “It’s ok to be scared sometimes.”
I blink, the heat of all of it slowly fading to my base level. I get very overheated in bad situations like this.
“I don’t know what to do.” I repeat to myself, pulling my legs in closer.
Jason leaves his place in the corner and comes to sit by me. I stare at the monitor for a long time. The vitals haven’t fixed themselves yet.
“I’m gonna have to stay here tonight, so I can watch all this stuff.” I half-ask, half-tell Bruce.
“Alfred and I can get you anything you need, just ask.” He lifts his hand to Tim’s and bows his head. Like I’ve said many times before, I don’t believe in good men. But Jason is one. And Bruce is one.
The three of us sit there all night, mostly in silence. I lean into Jason when my body can’t sit up anymore, but I still watch the monitor and Tim.
I spotted the site where Joker must have injected him. Or maybe Scarecrow did it. I don’t see how we’ll ever know. This kind of thing isn’t something that you can just easily recover from mentally.
Around 4:00 am, I have to bring myself to stand up so I can change out the fluids that are complete. I turned off the light while I was up.
“You’re gonna catch them, right?” I ask Bruce weakly as I adjust some of the meds.
“If it’s the last thing I do.” Bruce still watches Tim intently, never breaking away.
I return to my place on the other side of the bed, leaning into Jay with one hand and holding Tim’s in the other.
“Lydia?”
“Huh?” I must have zoned out for a minute.
“You should get some sleep.” Jay brushes some hair behind my ears, making it spill further onto the other side of my back.
“I can’t.” I turn away from him to face the monitor again. “This is too important.”
I see that the pulse rate has gone down from 138 to 110. Pressure is 162/99 now, and respirations I counted manually to be at 20. Ok. Maybe he won’t die. Maybe not.
“Are those any better?” Jay nodded toward the monitor softly.
“They’re not amazing but they’re better.” I tell him. I don’t even know if that’s true or not. His vitals can be fine all day, it’s the mental state I’m worried about. That was a mega dose of hallucinogens and basically all kinds of hell mixed together.

It’s day two, and I’m still waiting for anything to change. Bruce leaves periodically, I think to track down the Joker, and Jason only leaves to use the bathroom and bring food. I do not leave. I only chart, and watch, and that is all. My reflection in the small mirror we have gets worse and worse everyday. I haven’t slept this whole time, and barely eaten. I can’t. If he dies, I simply will kill somebody. It’s not up for discussion or debate. I will. I will find them, and they will suffer.
“I’m gonna have to take those off.” I tell Jason when he returns with food. I pull at one of the restraint straps. “It’s like super illegal for them to be left on that long. Technically illegal anyways since there’s no doctor order.” I brush my hands through my hair in distress.
“Why don’t you eat something first?” Jay offers food, it’s my favorite. Southern food.
“I can’t, lemme take care of this and then I will.” I unlock Tim, who is not awake yet. He’s said some things here and there, things about his parents, but it’s mostly things I don’t understand.
I decide to do a small assessment, just to make sure there’s nothing I missed during the craziness of the night before.
Ok, lungs are good. Pulse is still a little abnormal. And..
“Hey, what’s this scar from you think?” I ask Jay from behind me. He’s waiting on me to eat, which I think is very nice and loving.
“Some emergency surgery, I think,” Jason waits patiently on the floor. “Pretty sure he got impaled by Slade.”
“Are you serious?” I half-laughed. “That’s the same exact thing that happened to me.” I press softly on the site, it does seem like a very old injury. “Slade is such an asshole, he really is.”
I glance up to Tim to see him trying to say something.
“Yes?” I hold his arm and lean in, desperately hoping he’s able to make sense.
“…needles?” He whispers quietly. I’m confused.
“No, no needles anymore. Not unless you’re gonna try to attack us again.” I blink at him, trying to hide my excitement that he’s not a complete dead man.
“…good…hate needles…” and that was all he would say, I heard nothing else.
“Ok.” I say to Jay in relief. “Maybe he won’t completely die.”

The day after, everyone wanted updates from me, updates that I didn’t much have.
“Can we please see him?” Steph asked, her eyes still scared.
“You can,” I say cautiously. “But he’s not gonna be super interactive right now.”
Steph takes hold of Cass’s arm and they dart downstairs before I can say anything else.
“Lydia?” It’s Dick.
“Yeah?” I crack open a bottle of water from the fridge. If anything, I’m probably more dehydrated than Tim. It takes me around three gallons a day to be hydrated, since the temperature burns a lot of the water out of my body.
“Thank you.” I haven’t even completely turned around yet when I feel his body wrap around mine. “We can’t lose anybody else.” I allow him to hug me, it’s not like I could move my arms if I wanted to, but also I am stunned.
“You-you’re welcome.” I try to screw on the water bottle lid with one hand. “But he’s not completely fine yet, I’m gonna have to be here for a few more days.”
He breaks away, allowing me to step by. “I don’t think Bruce cares how long you stay.” He says kindly. He is usually this nice to everyone, but me and him usually clash. It’s odd to say the least. But then again, I did just somehow save his brother from being completely screwed.

Chapter Text

I return to the cave for a nap. I just put the alarm settings on the monitor to the most sensitive so I’ll wake up if anything happens.
I do my typical routine, pulling out extra pillows and blankets to make my nest on the floor by the bed. We really need to move that second bed in here….
We have a lot of beds but the issue is they were starting to clutter up the area so I had to move them to one corner of the cave behind my ‘room’.
I get all cozy in my nest and sleep for a few hours. Not good sleep; but it’s sleep and that’s what matters. Y’know, not sleeping ages you really bad, and there’s a way higher chance of getting memory disorders when you’re older.
Nobody wants to deal with a demented granny with flame powers and an immunity to drugs, I’ll tell you that right now.
I woke up to a light voice.
“Ehh?” I brushed some hair out of my face.
“Why’re you sleeping on the floor?” Tim groans quietly.
“Because I’m having to deal with you,fool.” I drag myself closer to the bed. “Why did you even go out by yourself?”
“….can’t remember…just wanted… some alone time…”
“Ughh,” I whined, lifting myself toward the charting computer I keep in here. “Well that was dumb.”
“Yeah.”
I sat down to chart, spinning in the chair because I’m tired and bored.
“Well which one was it?”
“Huh?”
“Bruce is gonna want to know- was it Scarecrow or the Joker?”
A short silence followed. “I didn’t really see…”
“Ok.” I click around on a few things in the chart, making sure the vitals overnight are all updated and the lab values we got are in the computer. Apparently the bat computer can run blood labs, which I think is super cool.
“BUN is high…hmmm…” I click through a few things. Apparently the computer can do toxicology reports as well.
“Y’know what, I’m just gonna call somebody-“ I whip out my phone, clicking on Kiera’s number.
“Hey!”
“Umm, hey Lydia. Haven’t heard from you in a while!” She sounds busy, I’ll try to keep this quick.
“Yeah, yeah I know. Look, I have a theoretical situation, ok?”
“Yeah?”
“So I had this patient the other day that got injected with um, an unknown substance, right?”
“Ok?”
“So, it looks like in the unknown substance, there’s just like a shit-ton of hallucinogens and neurotoxins and all this weird muscle-cramping stuff and everything else, right? So what would somebody theoretically do to fix that? And dosage was unknown, it was one syringe but we don’t know how much was in that.”
Kiera sighed, exasperated over the phone. “Girl, I don’t even know. That’s some crazy shit right there.”
“Yeah, for real.” I said, glancing to Tim. “Well thanks anyways! We gotta work together sometime.”
“Yeah definitely. Feels like I haven’t seen you in weeks!”
“Yeah…bye, Kiera.”
“Bye, Lydia.”

I call to Tim from my place at the computer. “Do you want me to let Kon know what happened?” All I can do is revert to what I know, and what I know is what to do a real hospital setting.
“Yeah.”
“Ok,” I tried calling Kon but he doesn’t answer until the second try.
“Hey, it’s Kon, the coolest-“
“Kon, hey, you wanna come over?” I keep all urgency out of my voice, that’s important when talking to family members.
“I guess, what for?”
“Tim had, umm, a bit of an incident,” I glanced at him quickly, he’s already asleep again. “It’s probably just best if you come as soon as you can.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Kon gets here in under ten minutes, I think that’s one of his new records.
“Hey-“I wait for him by the stairs of the cave.
“Where is he?” He cuts me off, searching for Tim. I notice we’re wearing the same type of cargo pants.
“Here.” I guide Kon to Tim, explaining on the way. “He was out on a mission and got injected somehow with that new shit they made.” My eyebrows furrow softly in thought. “I assume he’s probably told you about all that?”
“Yeah,” Kon says grimly. “He told me.”
As soon as Kon lays eyes on Tim, he sprints to his side, nearly collapsing onto the bed.
“See what happens when I’m not watching you for two seconds?” Kon hisses this out, but is dotingly brushing Tim’s hair from his face. I avert my eyes to give them privacy.
“Just lemme know if y’all need anything.” I tell Kon as I’m stepping out.
As I leave, I hear a very faint ‘my clone boy’. I think it’s very sweet they love each other so much.
I run into Dick on the way out, but shake my head and gesture for us to leave.
“They need some time alone.” I whisper to him, playing with my belt chain.

In the lounge, I sit with Steph and everyone else.
“If Drake wasn’t so impulsive, we wouldn’t have had this-“ Damian starts.
“Hey.” I say sharply. “He’s probably the least impulsive out of all of us, and he almost died. Let’s not-“
“Maybe he should have.”
“Hey!” Dick and I both yell at him, although I throw a pillow in his direction.
“He was only trying to help.” My eyes blaze in their direction fiercely. “And plus, now we got something good-ish out of it.”
“What do you mean ‘good-ish’?” Dick confiscates the pillow from Damian, who was about to throw it back at us.
“I mean now we know how to stop the person from dying in the moment.” I continued. “Everything I gave him is charted, like the amounts and everything. Bruce should get the PD to make an announcement so people know.”
“Speaking of Bruce, where is he?” Steph asks Dick.
Dick sighs. “He’s out, he’s been out this whole time. You know how he gets…”
“Should we call Selina?” Steph turns to me, her concern showing.
“I don’t know, probably.”
“Father can handle himself.” Damian says bitingly. Sometimes I forget that arguing with him isn’t the best way to get him to understand things.
“I know he can,” I tell him calmly. “But us arguing about what happened isn’t gonna fix anything. And I’m just sayin’ Bruce doesn’t need to overwork himself.”
“Lydia is right,” Dick straightens himself up on the couch, turning to all of us. “We need to just wait for Tim to make a recovery and then go from there.”
I rock my leg back and forth in silence, listening to what Steph and Cass have to say.
“Should we start patrolling in groups?” Steph suggested. “That way if somebody tries to attack one of us again, we’ll have a backup person.”
“Yeah, but we have a lot to do.” Cass sits on one of the arms of the couch.

“Yeah we do.” I agreed with her. “We still need to investigate the asylum and catch them both.” I glance back to Dick. “I can help a little with that but for the most part, somebody’s gonna have to stay here with Tim.”
“Not it.” Damian says plainly.
I snort at this, he can be very funny when he wants to be. “Well pretty much the only people that have enough medical knowledge to watch him is either me or Alfred. And since Alfred doesn’t go out, the both of us can just do shifts on who watches Tim.”
“He did show everybody that new footage from the asylum, right?” Steph is looking at all of us, but I think she’s mostly asking Damian and Dick.
“Yeah, we saw it.” Dick shrugs to Damian. “Something’s up over there, we’ll just have to figure out what.”
“I mean we already know what’s going on.” Cass states, leaning one arm against the couch. “They’re smuggling that toxin back and forth in the tunnels to get it out to the public.”
“Yeah,” I nod along with her. “I mean we already know what they’re doing, it’s catching them that’s the problem.”
“Leave that to us.” Dick smiles at Damian, and I assume they probably can handle it themselves.
“Well I wanna come.” Steph chimes in.
“I do, too.” I flick my chain, making a clinking sound. “If we’re doing the asylum raid, I wanna be a part of it.”
“Will we even need that many people?” Damian asks.
“I can stay here with Tim while you go.” Duke volunteers. I don’t know if he knows how to run anything down there, but I accept his offer.
“Ok, perfect. Well then all the rest of us can go, whenever y’all are ready.”
“Let me talk to Bruce and we can figure something out.” Dick gets up, and Damian follows shortly after.

I wander around the mansion, looking for Alfred, but I accidentally come across Bruce and Jason-to my surprise, obviously.
They’re talking in one of the large libraries with two opened doors, and I walked past. Hopefully they didn’t see me and I pretended not to see them. Maybe they’re working things out, and I’m not about to interrupt that.

I texted Dick as quietly as I could while I wandered into another room.

Found Bruce.

Ok

I bed down on a..(I think rich people call it a day bed?) in one of the other rooms, finding some kind of book about animals to keep myself occupied. The rain pelts the windows, almost politely.

“So you like birds, too?” Jay stands in the doorway to the room, something he often does for whatever reason.
I glance at the title of the book. Something about a collection of the birds of paradise.
“Yep,” I say, closing the book. “But my favorites are bleeding heart doves, not the crazy ones that are so loud.”
I decide not to ask him about Bruce, but instead I get up and return towards the main part of the house with Jason at my side. I talk with him and Steph for a while, about all the cases.

When I feel like I’ve given Kon enough time, I return to the cave to check vitals and give some more meds. Hopefully everything turns out ok.
“Will he be ok?” Kon asked, almost as soon as it popped into my own head.
It’s hard for a nurse to answer open-ended questions like this, so I phrase it carefully.
“A lot of toxins are still in his system,” I say, controlling my tone as I open the medicine cabinet. “So what we’re trying to do now is flush everything out and make sure his labs can get back to normal.” I catch myself. “Or as normal as they can be.”
“I just don’t want anything to happen to him.” He says quietly. If you know anything about Kon, you’ll know he’s usually very rambunctious and loud, maybe even a little arrogant. But at this time, he is none of those things.
“I know,” I slide past him to ignite the incense. “I don’t want anything to happen to him, either.”
Kon watches me with intensity as I give certain meds, asking about some things interestedly. I explain what I can, and for other things I just tell him that I’m not completely sure, but I just think that it will help.
“Are those good?” He points his head toward the monitor.
“Ehhh..” I hesitate. Pulse rate is still high, and blood pressure is, too. “They’re better than they were.”
“But they’re good?” He insists. I hate that he’s too hopeful, it’s not good for anybody to be too hopeful.
“Not good, not bad.” I say shortly. I sense him being upset, so I decide to soften up a little. “But I guess considering that he’s even still alive, yeah..they’re pretty good.”
“I wanna sleep here tonight.” He stands up a little straighter by the bed, as if I’m the one he needs to get permission from.
“Ok, probably just ask Bruce. But I’m staying here, too.” I click a few things on the IV pump to set it. If you know anything about pumps, you’ll know they’re really freakin’ annoying and they beep a lot.
“I’ll be back in a little bit.” I wave a quick bye to them and leave without incident.
Jason will be ok with Steph for a while, I think.
So I slip out, and I suit up, and I walk around Gotham for a long time. I put in my AirPods and turn on ‘Family Tree’ and I dance in the cathedral, sending flames swirling around myself sensually. I stop a few small robberies even. One woman’s pearl stand got broken, and pearls scattered all in the dark alley. I helped her pick them up, to her horror. I forget that people still assume I’m a man, or they assume I’m out to kill them. Oh well, at least I think my disguise is cool.
I come to a resting place on a roof, and sit quietly to watch the moon. This is good. I am doing good here. Mama would be proud, and so would Paul.
I slide my mask halfway on top of my head so I can talk to them in peace.
“Mama,” I call out. “I saved somebody the other day. He’s nice, and worth saving. I think you would be happy with me.” I ran my thumb over my cross necklace. It’s part of the Alchemist now, and every time I suit up, I never forget it.
I hear a sudden loud rumbling below the roof. I slip my mask back on and creep to the edge of the roof carefully.
This building is next to a warehouse, and there’s a lot of racket coming from it. I make my way down the building, scaling past windows and stairs. I slink over to the outside of it, trying to listen the best I can.
“The boss says he wants those out by tonight!”
“Come on, move it!”
“We going as fast as we can, asshole!”
They argue back and forth aggressively. Thank god these people aren’t very observant.
I send the address to Dick, but say nothing else. Hopefully, he’ll understand.
I work my way into the building, slipping in through a broken window.
I don’t know how many guys are here, I assume a minimum of three. Oh well, time to find out. I drop-kick the nearest one, sending flame waves out to ensnare the others. They have guns, which I pop rather easily. I love that new trick.
“Who the hell are you?” One asked, pacing back and forth against the flames.
“I’m the Alchemist.” I say simply, holding on to my hostage’s neck. “Where is your boss?” I assume they work for Scarecrow. They look like it.
“We ain’t gotta tell you nothin’.” One says.
“Well that’s just plain bad grammar.” I shove the first one away, darting him as I do so. I’ll play with the other two for a while, as I like to do.
I swarm the flames to and from them, pushing them further apart.
“So what’s this?” I knock on one of the large shipping crates as I approach them. “He tell you to start shipping out the drugs?”
“No,” one says stupidly. “We don’t know what’s in them!”
“Yes, you do.” I flick a flame closer to his arm, making him squeal. I enjoy this, I truly do. Especially after what happened to Tim.
“Ok, ok, fine- you win, man!” One drops to his knees, and I send a swirl of flames caressing around him. “We got orders to send the shipments out tonight! He wants em shipped to Blüdhaven.”
“Dude!” The other yells at him.
“Silence!” I say viciously, still listening to this second guy.
“So shipments, you say?” I circle around him, slowly, menacingly. “Where did you get the supplies from, huh? The asylum?”
He looks frantically to the third. I lean in. “You’re talking to me, right now.” I let flames run along my arms, over the jacket. You see, a while back, I asked Raven to put some protection spells over my clothes. So that’s why they’re fireproof. Well, mostly fireproof. “Unless I decide that you’re of no more use to me…” I allow him to think this over.
“They make em at the main lab, but test em at the asylum. That’s all I know, promise!” He shrieks, shying away from the fire.
“Well, duh.” I sigh annoyedly. “I already know about that. Where’s your boss?”

The man pauses for a second, which I don’t allow. “You gonna tell me or am I gonna have to make you?” I loom over him, thankful my boots add at least four inches to my height.
“He’s-he’s at the asylum now. As far as I know.” The guy shields himself with his hands, as if that would save him.

“Ok. Well thanks then.” I chop him harshly in the neck with one hand, this works by hitting a certain nerve and rendering the person useless, temporarily.
The last guy I wanna take my time with. “I’ll tell you what, we’ll race for it. Ready?” I count down, like a child during a race. I think this is very funny. I put the flame wall down, and the man races off. I give him a 10 second head start, and then I tear out. I know I will be faster than him.
Nearly at the exit, I zoom up to him and tackle him swiftly, both of us tumbling on the ground. I dart him with ease, and look up to see Nightwing and some friends approaching.
I grab the man by the collar and pull him to them.
“Tribute?” I tilt my head doggedly, presenting the now-victim to Nightwing.
“Ok, but what happened? Did you find anything out?” He side-steps the tribute, which I find to be mildly offensive. Tribute must either be accepted or declined, never ignored.
“Yes, some shipments of that drug are supposed to go out to Blüdhaven tonight. They also said Scarecrow is at the asylum now.” I say, kicking the man partially out of our way.
“I’ll stop the shipments with Damian, if you guys wanna head to the asylum.”
I gaze to Steph and Duke, who are now Spoiler and Signal.
“Ok, let’s go.” I say in a hushed tone. We head out, ready to catch this fucker once again.

Chapter Text

We arrived at the asylum swiftly, sneaking in through a skylight that Duke knows about somehow. Cass is allegedly with Kon and Tim, but I’m happy she decided to stay with them.
“Fast and silent?” I ask them before we advance. The lights in here turn off and on periodically, I don’t like it. The wailing of the inmates combined with the wind outside makes a horrible sound.
“Yep.”
“Copy that.”
I decide to try the new thing I’ve been wanting to try, if it comes down to it. I hope it works.
We got Oracle to help us hack the surveillance system, so all the cams are ‘down’ right now.
We slip in to the main floor with no incident, now all we need to do is get to that basement.
“Where’s red hood?” I ask Steph once we branch off from Duke. He decided to try the south side, while we take the north.
“Not sure, maybe he’s on his way.” Steph paused, thinking. “Is he gonna help with the investigation?”
“I don’t know.” Suddenly we heard a thud from behind us, I turned, prepared to take somebody out as swiftly as possible.
“Hola.” Jay whispers, striding up to us.
“Hey, love.” I brush against his arm. “Let’s go get him.”
Steph gives me an odd look and I have to fall back as we start sneaking towards where we assume the basement is, based on the floor plans.
“So you guys are like ‘together’ together?”
“Uhhh…” this isn’t the best time to talk about this, to be quite honest. “I guess, kind of. Maybe. You’ll have to ask him and see what he says.” I read my head slightly.
I can see Steph beaming under her disguise, I don’t know whether to be annoyed or amused.
Shit. A guard appears from around the corner, and we have to slink between doorways, hiding in the crevices. I wait for a period of time, and Steph and I nod to each other from our opposite sides of the hall.
I catch up to Jason as we advance.
“Will you be ok?” I glance at him halfway, concerned. I know it’s very very hard for him to come back to this place. I don’t know why he’s here, really.
“I’ll have to be.” He doesn’t look at me as we walk, nearing the basement door. None of the guards have alerted yet, since I guess they assume the cams being down is normal. Shitty guards if you ask me, especially since the Joker is loose and all that.
Jason has to take out only one guard, but we’re able to make it down the basement stairs successfully.
“We’re nearing position.” Steph says through the coms. It occurs to me that Jay probably doesn’t have coms, since he’s not really supposed to be here.

“Ok. I’m in position now, too.” Duke says. “If we start sweeping from both directions, I feel like we’ll find something.”
I hold a hand up for Steph to stop. The asylum is very dark and creepy, I don’t like it here. Screams echoed up and down the halls, and I’m getting very worried about Jason. Every single thing in here could trigger PTSD or something, and if it does, we’re gonna be screwed. He has guns, too, and I’m not so sure me and Steph would be able to get them away from him.
The basement, however, is even darker and gloomier than the rest of the place. It smells like death down here, and I would know. Dirty water drips into puddles from pipes as we begin walking again. I stay close to Jason, making sure my arm brushes by him every once in a while.
There is a lot of empty space down here, but when we get to a certain spot, he freezes. An overhead light flickers sinisterly, and the spot he’s looking at has a few spots of dried blood on the floor and a small drain. I wonder if that is where some of it happened. I don’t want to think about it.
“Come on, let’s keep going.” I wrap my arms around his waist, pressing him along as we walk further. This is starting to seem like a bad idea. The further in we go, the louder the screams start to sound. I begin walking faster and faster, almost at a run alongside Steph.
“Hey,” I whisper as fast as I can. “If things go south here, I’m gonna have to get him out, ok?”
“Ok, understood.” Steph side-eyes Jason, who is a short ways behind us. I fall back to him again, mostly so I can shield him from whatever the hell is down here.

Finally we turn a large corner of the basement to see it. It’s not a lab necessarily, but an experimental-type layout, just like that guy said.
Duke spots it as soon as we do, and Scarecrow is there, too. The screaming is coming from what seems to be an inmate Scarecrow has tied to a table. Lovely. So this is where they’ve been doing the experiments.

Scarecrow spots us and immediately whips from us to Duke. He is cornered, but nobody here needs to take any chances being injected with any of that bullshit.
“Doesn’t Batman do any of his own bidding anymore?” Scarecrow asked us, almost lazily. Now, I don’t know if I’ve ever described him, but Scarecrow is terrifying. Tubes and cords flow around him, merging into weird places that don’t make sense. His mask always seems to crawl with worms and maggots, constantly moving and shifting. He tries to talk like a doctor, but it’s clear he’s not. Not anymore, at least. Syringes are wrapped or connected to his fingers, and they’re filled with what I’m assuming is the stuff they injected Tim with for no reason. Well, I mean, obviously the reason is they were trying to kill him, but still.
“Miss Alchemist,” he says, as if this is a casual get-together. “Mr. Wilson was very unhappy about failing to execute you.” He flicked one of the shots next to the inmate, who was still screaming and thrashing. “Seems a shame you couldn’t kill him.”
“Oh, believe me, I want to.” I sent a slow trail of flames around us all, trying to be careful not to alert Jason too much. I encircled us, leaving extra room behind Duke. I twitch a finger at Duke, our sign for him to start encroaching on Scarecrow.
“This ends tonight.” Steph growls at him, slowly taking a batarang from her belt. Me and Steph are around the same height, and Jason towers behind us. Although, I don’t think he should get involved in whatever is about to happen.
“Oh, is that so, Spoiler?” Scarecrow puts inflection on that last part, almost teasing her.
Duke tries to advance, but Scarecrow abruptly turns.
“Not so fast,” he swirls to the opposite part of the table, and holds something up. Fuck. “Do any of you know what this is?” He asks too calmly.

I glance to Steph in fear. What he’s holding is a detonator. A detonator to what, I don’t know.
“What did you do?” I ask him coldly. I’m not in the mood for games anymore.
“Well you see, it is my failsafe system, Miss Alchemist.” I thought he would have known my name by now since he kidnapped us all. I was sure Slade told him our identities, and that’s how they found us. Maybe he just doesn’t care who we are.
“If anyone here decides to slip-up, then I will simply detonate this entire asylum.” His finger hovers on it, flirting with the button.
The inmate has ceased screaming by this point, and I assume he is dead. I count no respirations at all.
Now, I can burn his finger away from it, but it will be very tricky. Best to distract him first.
“Why would you do that?” I ask bored, as if he’s not worth my time. “Then you’ll never catch Batman or carry out your original plan.” Everybody already knows what his original plan was by this point, but I don’t want him completely knowing that we know.
Scarecrow seems to think this over for a moment.
“I suppose you are partially correct. But my plan must follow through, whether I am deceased..or not.”
“So you’d rather be dead than caught?” Steph rolls her eyes. I agree with her. This whole thing is ridiculous, I don’t have patience with psychos.
Duke has advanced a little more, which I noticed at the start of Scarecrow’s rant.
“I think your thought processes are just a little beneath me, Spoiler.” Scarecrow glances at the inmate, the one who I presume to be dead. “Ahhh, it seems you’re all the first outside witnesses to my little experiment series.”
“All you did was kill him for no reason,” I snort smoke out impatiently. “And you tried to kill Red Robin, for no reason.”
“Nothing is without reason, Miss Alchemist, that’s what you fail to understand…” he trails off, still watching the inmate. “And he isn’t dead, only dormant.”
“What do you mean ‘only dormant’?” I have a sudden realization that is scaring me, very bad.
“You see, the serums I have created have variation.” Scarecrow introduces, as if we’re at a pharmacy conference. “The serum given to your friend was an unactivated dose.” He takes a different syringe and needle from the table, one I haven’t seen yet. “This young man, however, will receive an activated dose.”
I tilt my head back to Jason. I really, really hope he’s ok.
“Activated dose?” Duke encroaches further, almost within reach of Scarecrow. He is wielding one of his staffs made out of light, and it reflects off all of us.
“Why, yes, I’m happy you asked.” Scarecrow said, seemingly polite. “The activated dose is the…final product..you could say.” With that, he suddenly injects the new syringe into the inmate, to our dismay.
Duke rushes at him, and I send out a single flame to Scarecrow’s finger, making him drop the detonator.
“Get it!” I scream to Steph. Duke jumps on Scarecrow, slamming him to the ground as Steph and I rush in. I don’t know where Jason is, and I can’t think about it now. If we all blow up, it won’t matter.
Steph swipes the detonator. “What do I do with it?” She calls.
“I don’t know, just take it away!” I yell to her. I kick Scarecrow on the way by, who is still struggling with Duke.
The inmate, who is now wildly awake, has ripped out of all restraints. Literally what is my life, I question this almost daily.
He jumps at me, and I dodge, creating my scythe I like to use. I don’t know if this guy is actually dead or not, so it’s gonna be very difficult to get him down with no access to meds.
I slice him with it on the way by, twirling it to turn sharply to Jason.
“Go!” I yell at him, but he cannot. He will not go, he will not do anything. He only shrinks into the corner, and slides against the wall. He should have never come here, and now I’m gonna have to take out this psycho by myself and drag Jason out with the rest of us.
Now, you see, in a normal fight, assuming the opponent is normal, there is a sort of pattern to defenses and offenses. A dance, if you will. Fighting somebody that isn’t psychologically aware, that’s a whole other thing.
The inmate ducks and rushes at me almost faster than I can defend, screeching and snarling wildly. I put up flame walls back and forth, but I’m trying to be careful not to kill the guy.
“Ok, screw this!” Steph starts attacking the inmate as much as she can, and I rush to her aid.
“What do we do?” She yells to me, blocking the inmate from trying to bite her.
“I don’t even know, dude.” I pull him off, but it’s almost impossible. If this guy wasn’t strong before, he definitely is now.
“Signal! We need help over here!”
I see that Duke has conveniently incapacitated Scarecrow, and I am pleased for a moment.

Duke and Steph are able to wrangle the guy onto the ground while I sling over the table, frantically searching for anything I can use. My own darts could help, but I don’t know by how much.
“Ok, shit.” I turn away from the table, racing back to them. “I can’t find anything over there, so we’re gonna try this!” I dart him with three, and we wait.
Duke chokes him out and Steph and I hold the rest down.
“Ok, fine, you’re getting a fourth one-“ I dart him again, but he is slowing down slightly.
We wait about five minutes longer, and it seems he can be left here now.

We get a sudden message over the coms.
“We need backup.” It’s Dick. “Sooner rather than..(static) later.”
“I’ll go help them,” I told Steph and Duke sharply. “You watch him!” I point to Jason, before making my way over to him quickly.
I touch foreheads with him and cup his face. “I’ll be right back-ok, love?” He says nothing, and I must go. They need help too, and I’m only one person.
I decide to enact what I’ve always wanted to try. In the circle, I create a flaming horse, slightly shorter than Soda, since we’re in a cramped space. I find with fleeting amusement that the fire horse is in the shape of an Arabian, which I think is fitting. I don’t know if it’s necessarily alive or not, but I’ll pretend like it is.
“C’mere, we gotta go.” I mount up, praying to the Great Being that Raven fire-proofed my pants good enough. She did, and off we go through the basement.
I have to dismount once, to get through the basement to the tunnel system. I’m pretty sure the tunnels lead to the docks, where I assume Dick and Damian were trying to stop the shipments from going to Blüdhaven.
The horse takes a lot of energy to maintain, and I already can’t breathe as we gallop through the tunnels. As we pass one passageway, I feel wind on my face, and decide to turn the horse around for us to go that way. Steam ripples around the horse’s legs as we run through the drain water, but I feel like we’re getting close.

We come to an intersection with an opening, and I find that we’re only about half a mile from the docks. I am pleased with this, and I spur the horse along. We race along behind buildings, getting closer and closer to the actual water.
“Where did y’all say you were?” I ask over the coms as we come to a trot. I’m very out of breath, I really need oxygen. And water.
“You’ll see us.” And I did. They were both sparring with a ton of people on top of one of the shipping crates by the docks. I didn’t even wanna know how they got up there.
“You’ll see me, too.” I tell them. We progress right up to the crate, where a few people with guns seem to be lurking around.
“I don’t have the patience for this.” I tell the horse, releasing it and changing those flames into scythes.
I popped what guns I could, but in all the chaos I don’t think I got them all. I’m able to make flame steps to get myself up to the top of the crate.
Doesn’t seem to me like they need all that much help.
I wield the scythes, sidling up to Damian and slashing at his opponent while he goes for the legs.
“They only sent you?” He slices the katana across the guy’s side, and I kick the shoulder.
“Umm, yeah.” I dodge a punch and throw one. “I mean, I lowkey left them behind, but they’re fine.” I grunt as I get kneed in the side.
“Where’s everyone else?” Dick called. He does a lot more show-y stuff than me or Damian. A lot of flips and such.
“They’re fine! Kind of.” I call back to him. I’m very worried about Jason, but I had to take care of this first. These shipments cannot leave.
“Did you even bother to catch Crane?” Damian asked as he slides under someone’s arm, slicing them along the way.
“Yeah,” the wind almost gets knocked out of me. “We got him, not Joker, though.”
“Amateurs.” Damian mutters, pressing the blade to someone’s neck and kicking them off the crate.
“Umm, ‘scuse me,” I say as I beat someone with the hilt of one scythe. “At least we caught one.”
“You just got lucky.” Damian insists. Bullets sling past us in a flurry.
“Whatevs.” I buck someone off myself and push the scythe into them, to their screams. “Did you see my new horse?”
“New horse?” Dick grunts in the background. “Don’t you guys already have a zoo?”
“Yeah, but this one is like even better.” I back myself more toward Dick’s side, since Damian doesn’t seem to be in the mood for banter. “It’s a horse I can make out of flames.” I sent flames shooting around the crate, scattering through the last few guys.
Dick whacks the remaining man, taking him down as well. We stand on the crate alone, now, all breathing heavily. I lift my mask partially up and lace my fingers over the back of my head so I can breathe.
“Alchemist, what are you doing?” Damian asks, his eyes almost flaming more than mine typically do.
“Just catching my breath.” I wheeze out. “That horse takes up a ton of energy.”
Damian rolls his eyes and Dick hops down, opening one of the crates.
I follow, offering to help Damian down, and he reluctantly accepts.
“You’ll tell Batman about this one, right?” I ask Dick, trying to wrap things up. “I need to go see about-“ I almost catch myself saying his name. “I need to go see about red hood, lemme know if y’all need anymore help.”
“Ok, sounds like a plan.” Dick enters the crate, surveying all the boxes of this serum they made. There’s a lot of boxes.
I race back to the direction of the asylum, sending a message to Steph on the way.
“Spoiler, where’s your current location? Are you still at location A?”
“Yes. We’re gonna need to you to come back.” She doesn’t give much away, but I know what the deal is.
I conjure up the horse again, something I am newly proud of, and we’re able to find the tunnel system again.
Time is of the essence, and I urge the horse faster and faster back to the asylum. I dismount and make reins for the horse, leading it back through what I’m pretty sure is the basement door again. It is, thankfully.
Steph is crouching by Jason, and Duke is making a ton of calls back and forth to Bruce, I think. We just all have to be careful. Scarecrow and the inmate are still down, but shoved in a corner now.
“Oracle is sending over the cops.” Steph tells me as I approach. “But we need to go, now.” She continues to shake Jay by the shoulder, but it’s doing nothing. He is whispering to himself, and I feel as if this was a very, very bad thing to do.
Steph glances up scared at my new pet.
“Wha-what is that?”
“It’s my new horse.” I pat it, and release it. I don’t know if it can feel love, but maybe so. The horse dissipates, and I slide to my knees by Jason.
“Hey, baby, we gotta get out of here, ok? Right now.” I tug on his arm..there’s no way even the three of us are gonna be able to pull him all the way back up the stairs and out.
“We can handle the cops, if you can get him out.” Steph glances to us. “I don’t think either of you need to have a run-in with the PD.”
“You’re right,” I admit frustratedly. “Just buy us some time, ok?”
“You got it, Alchemist.”
“Thanks, Spoiler.” I nod my appreciation at her, and then turn myself back to Jay. I’m growing increasingly desperate.
I bend down once more, trying to make eye contact, but’s it’s not working. He’s looking right through me. I hear the same phrase repeated. “No, no, not again..please no…” over and over. It breaks me. I want to kill Joker for this, and maybe I will. I rest my hands on his shoulders, trailing them down to his arms.
“Please, let’s go.” I plead. I try heating my hands up some, thinking that could break him from it. It doesn’t, it only burns him and then I feel even more guilty about this whole thing. Why did he come here?
I decide on something else, since the darts aren’t an option. I bow my head towards him, wrapping my arms around his neck. I only breathe. Softly, gently, allowing the smoke to billow around us peacefully. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to give up.

“Lydia? Is that you?”
I open my eyes, facing him as calmly as I can. I’m not calm, at all. “Yes. It’s me. Let’s go, ok? You wanna go home?”
“Yeah.” He mumbles out blankly.
“Ok, let’s go home.” I lift on him as much as I can, hearing my vertebrae pop and creak. He’s able to compose himself enough to get up, and we separate from Duke and Steph. They go up to the main floor, I assume to meet the cops.
“Y’all will have to catch a ride with Nightwing.” I tell them over the coms bluntly as we get to my car. I don’t want to make Jason stay here any longer than he has to.
I turn the music on low volume, hoping that helps bring him to reality better than I can. I speed to Bruce’s, but no cops dare to stop me. I think half the PD is probably at the asylum by now.

I lead him from the car to the cave, and Kon tries to jump me as soon as we enter.
“Where were you? You said you were coming back tonight to check on him!” Kon says angrily, nearly shoving me. He’s blocking the way to the ‘room’.
“Is Tim ok?” I ask, my leg muscles twitching from all the running and riding.
“I don’t know.” He says in defeat. “I just wanted you to get here.”
“Ok, well I’m here now.” I barge past Kon with Jason trailing behind. I hate treating him like a lost dog or something. I just don’t know what else to do. I can’t keep giving him drugs, that’s not gonna fix the problem.
“I need a Diet Coke, bring me one.” I say firmly to Kon as I sit Jason down on the floor. I turn all the lights off, plunging us into darkness. All except for that night light I had brought days ago. Kon leaves the cave, so I can have maybe a slight bit of privacy. The Diet Coke was a ploy, but not really.
Jason sits in the dark, still experiencing tremors from the looks of it. Tim is asleep, but vitals are still questionable.
“This whole day has been a crock of shit.” I mutter to myself, grabbing what supplies I can.
First I need to see about Jason, then I’ll worry about Tim. See, priorities? If nothing else, I can prioritize.
I sit down with Jason, tilting myself so that the heat of my body will radiate onto his. I don’t know what to say. I don’t think anything I can say will help.
“Why did you come with us?” I ask finally, hopeless.
“I wanted to come with you.” He answers. His hands still shake, I do my best to hold them.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I blink, looking from him to Tim. “You never, ever, need to put yourself in a bad situation for me.” I run my fingers along his face. “Understand?”
“Yeah, but I’m not gonna listen..”
“You’re hopeless.” I say again, exasperated.
“I know..”
Kon returns with the Diet Coke, and I get up to give Tim his prn meds.
“How has he been since I was out?” I ask Kon.
“He..he just stopped talking as much and I got worried.” He kicked at the ground half-heartedly. “I’m sorry if I acted stupid.”
“It’s ok.” I tell mostly both of them as I start programming the IV pump again. “It’s the middle of the night, I think he’ll be ok not to talk as much for now.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Kon says again, quietly.
“We’ll stay here another night, how bout that?” I pull out some clean blankets and hand to Kon, but he doesn’t sleep.
I don’t even know if Jason sleeps. We stare in silence at each other for a long time. We all love each other, and it sucks when bad things happen to us. It really, really sucks. I end up curling myself around Jason and trying to sleep the best I can. But I think about it all.
I think about the case..I think about what Steph and Duke are telling the cops….I think about what Jason went through for all that time….and I think about mama, and Paul….and….

Chapter Text

Jason and I go home for a few days, and I left Alfred strict instructions on what to do with the monitors and meds and everything else. Kon left shortly after we did, I’m told. Steph is supposed to be coming by later to give us updates.
I just feel like it’s better for him for us to go home now, we haven’t been home together in days.
“What do you wanna eat for dinner?” I ask, brushing through my hair with care. I haven’t done any self care in a long time. I need to. My hair falls in waves as the brush passes through, glinting in the light of the setting sun.

“Mmm,” Jason groans, stretching and looking away from his book. I haven’t asked which one it is yet. We should go to the bookstore and get more. “Sushi?”
“Ehhh…pizza?” I part my hair out. “Or we could try to be responsible adults and go grocery shopping.”
“Pizza it is.”
I let some smoke emit from myself happily. I text Steph and tell her not to bother us for tonight. We need this.

We go pick up the pizza, he wants to listen to Deftones, and I allow it, although I prefer Aerosmith or Limp Bizkit… we do listen to ‘Take a Look Around’ on the way back, and I am pleased.

“Mm, this is a good one.” I say, shredding into my slice. It’s some kind of meat pizza, and I like it very much.
“Yeah, we’ll have to get this one again.” He agrees. He’s on the third slide already.
I take extra care of us, clipping our nails and making sure we both get showers. At this point in time, I walk around the house naked, like when I forget a towel or something. He never complains.
“Do you wanna see my new outfit?” I ask while I’m drying my already-damp hair.
“Didn’t even have to ask.” He turns on one of the Moroccan lamps we have. I like it, it’s pretty. It reflects all kinds of little shapes around the room.
“Ok, well don’t look while I get changed.” I smile, tilting my head.
He turns his back, and I rush to the closet. It’s a good outfit, yes, a very hot outfit.
“Ok, I’m ready.” I cross one leg behind myself and lean in the doorway. It’s a metallic mesh-top (see-through I might add, and I ‘forgot’ the bra), and low-rise flare leg jeans with my new western belt. Oh, and the jeans are embroidered at the bottom. I go nuts for embroidered stuff. I also carefully placed my underwear so that they’re slightly visible. I’m hoping if nothing else can make him feel better, this will. Maybe we can go out or something.
He puts his hand over his face, I’m unsure why.
“Is it good?” I bound over to him, twirling around him.
“Oh yeah-“ he stutters. “It’s really good.”
I make him spin me around, like I’ve seen Selina do with Bruce. I’m usually not a very romantic type, but for tonight I’ll pretend to be.
“We should go out.”
“Now?” He glances up and down, I assume trying to restrain himself. I’m amused by this.
“Yeah, when else?” I blow smoke in his face. “I think it will be good for us to just do something other people do for once.”

“Ok,” he agrees, curving a hand around my hip. “Where do you wanna go?”

We end up at a quiet, fancy bar on a good side of town (after I dry my hair and do my makeup-obviously). Well, as good as Gotham can be. Jason picked it, he says it’s good. I’m not much of a drinker, and I don’t think he is either, but I have a couple things for fun.
“Hey, you wanna do a good thing and give me your number?” I turned to see some other random man approach and sit down next to us.
“No. I’m happily taken.” I say, twitching my lip in disgust. I don’t have the patience for disgusting men, especially rude, impatient men.
The man tries to insist, and Jason flashes one of his guns. It sends the man backing away rather fast, which I find amusing.
“So what’s the plan for when Roy gets out?” I ask, sipping my drink. It’s a cherry thing, I don’t like it very much.
“Mmm, we’ll have to see,” he takes a sip of his own. “He’s my biggest annoyance.”
“He’s your best friend.” I argue playfully with him. “He’s obsessed with you, Y’know?”
Jason rolls his eyes, but he knows it’s true as much as I do. “I guess. He makes himself my problem.”
“Yeah, fair.” I brush a few loose strands from my face. “What if y’all went and did your thing while I catch dad?”
His eyebrows are furrowed as he ponders it. “You don’t want to come with us?” He asks, almost sadly.
“No, no- that’s not what I meant at all! I’m just sayin’ I thought it would be good for y’all to be alone since I’ve been disrupting everything.”
“You haven’t been disrupting anything.” He takes another sip.
“But…?” I narrow my eyes in thought. “Does he think that?”
“Roy likes women..” he stated plainly, and now I’m confused. I tilt my head to him, trying to show I have no idea what he’s trying to say.
“You’re a woman.” He explains, as if that is an explanation.
“Uhhh,” I open my mouth partially to try and figure out what to say. “So he doesn’t care if I come..cause I’m a woman?”
Jason almost chokes on his drink, and I have to hold in a laugh. I think I laugh way too much, but in my defense a lot of things are funny.
“Lydia,” he says, exasperated with the whole thing. “I’m telling you he won’t care. At least come with us so I won’t have to deal with him that much.”
“Come with you to where?”
“Wherever. There’s always stuff to do outside Gotham, out in the world.” He ends on a softer tone, and I understand. What he wants is a change of scenery.
“I get it,” I say slowly, reaching for his leg. “But I just gotta take care of a few things, first.” I blink up at him so he knows I understand what he is wanting. “After that we can go anywhere we want, huh?”
“Yeah..” he allows me to set my hand on him as we sit here.
“Y’know what’s kinda sad?” I push my drink away, it’s pretty bad and I can’t do anymore.
“What?” His eyes lower to mine.
“I’ve never really been anywhere. Besides here and Fish..” I break the gaze and turn away to watch the fish tank behind the bar. Ha, fish.
“I wanna go to Japan, and maybe New Zealand or something.”
“What’s in New Zealand?” He teases.
“Well I dunno since I’ve never been, genius.” I shove him lightly. “I always thought it was just a bunch of fields and horses.”
“I think you’re thinking of Texas.”
“Whatever, same thing.”

After we get back, we have amazing sex- per usual, and I sit with him and love him as we fall asleep. You see, I am biromantic, not bisexual, but for him I’ll do anything as much as he wants. He doesn’t need to know that I don’t feel attraction like that, I’m attracted to him as a person. I will say or do whatever he wants as long as he knows he is loved.
And I think the whole ace thing has something to do with what happened to me. All the things that happened…or maybe not. Maybe I was born this way. But I don’t want anyone to think I was born ‘wrong’ or that they can ‘fix’ whatever it is. It’s taken me a long time to accept there’s nothing wrong with me, at least in that way. I suspect Cass is ace too, but I’ll never ask her about that. It’s a secret I’ll take to the grave, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“So are you really ok from the other day?” I ask again, tracing my fingers over him lovingly.
“I will be..” he closes his eyes, I can’t tell if he’s lying or not.
“Promise?”
“Yeah. Promise..”
“You know I love you, right?”
“Yeah?”
“And I want the best for you?”
“…Yeah?”
“Ok. Good.” I close my own eyes and we stay like this for a while. I am pleased. If I can’t save him from his past, I can at least be with him in the moment.
“I love you, too.”
“‘To love me is to suffer me’.” I quote Ethel to him. It’s a true statement, to me at least.

I’m happy we’re getting to sleep more this week, truly. We were even able to finish some books, and finish some laundry. One morning, I even ate breakfast on the patio in my pajamas. The only time I leave is to check on Tim, and he seems to be doing a little better.

“So, as it turns out- the injections that Scarecrow was producing were either two things-“ I draw on the board in the cave, trying to teach everybody. “Either activated or non-activated. Did anybody find out what the activation agent actually is?” I glance around.
“Father says it was some kind of accelerant to the neurotoxins.” Damian says from his place on the floor.
“Ok,” I nod, writing that down. “Also, we intercepted all the shipments, right?”
“Right.”
“Ok.” I write more, taking over for Tim while he’s still in bed. I’m sure he can hear some of what we’re saying. “And we for sure did solve the murders, correct.”
“Yep.” Dick says, walking up to our group. “The Joker killed them with the….” He snaps his fingers, trying to think.
“The orbitoclast?”
“Yeah, the orbitclast, hinting to us about the asylum, and the plan was stopped before they released anymore.”
“Or so we think.” Damian catches on to what I’m going to imply before I imply it.
“Yes.” I agree. “I think it goes a little deeper than that.” I flip the board, revealing my own setup I made the other night. “This is what I think-“
“Lydia, what am I looking at?” Steph gazes up at it, stumped.
“Ok, so lemme explain.” I started circling things at random, trying to connect them so they understand.
“Ok, is everybody listening?”
“Yep.”
“Yes.”
I see a few nods, and so I continue.
“Ok, so this is what I think: the Joker was involved with this whole thing, correct? And he’s still on the loose,” I start circling more and more. “But,” I say sharply, “I think the Court is actually facilitating this whole thing, somehow maybe making a deal with Scarecrow to get those new serums or whatever. That would make the Talons basically indestructible.” I scribble furiously into the board. “So, I suspect that let’s say- Slade knows about the Court somehow, so maybe he either introduced Scarecrow to them or something, and-“
“Wait, wait, slow down.” Dick puts his hands up.
“Ok, sorry.” I say, already out of breath. “So let’s say somehow Slade is involved with the Court, or at least aware of them.” I draw a line to another profile. “So then somehow Scarecrow is aware of them, maybe forced to work for them, who knows-“ I draw another line. “So then he released the Joker, maybe as a distraction, or maybe for personal purposes, and then starts working on the serum.” I ripped some of the paper a little bit. “Oops.” I whirl around to them, like I’m fervently preaching. “Because who was gonna receive the shipments in Blüdhaven?”
“No, I mean I see where you’re coming from.” Duke shrugs. “And we never found out the full list on which guards knew about the whole thing that was going down in the basement.”
“Right, cause these cops suck.” I turn back to the board, processing. “I think it’s a coverup or somethin.”
“And what if the main plan to release the serums into the city was a ploy or something, like Lydia said?” Cass glances up to me.
“Well, I don’t think that part was entirely a ploy.” I bite the marker, trying to contain my thoughts. “Scarecrow and joker definitely wanted that shit to get into the wrong hands. But I’m just saying I think the Court has some underlying plan here…”

Before anybody can say anything else, I hear the bed alarm go off. I spring up the steps to the ‘room’ to find Tim trying his best to fall.
“Have you lost your goddamn mind, boy?” I yell at him, shoving him back into the bed. “You can’t get up right now.”
“I was just getting up for some water.” He says weakly.
“Not on my watch, you’re not.” I hand him the water, but stand with my arms crossed over him. “I’m gonna call Kon to come over if you don’t get back in bed.”
I hear something sassy from him, but I choose not to laugh.
“What was that?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“That’s what I thought.” I turn away, barely able to hold in a cackle. I’m very pleased he’s still alive, and even more surprisingly there’s not any noticeable brain damage. He’s still having muscle pains but that’s to be expected.

I return to the main part of the cave to find Steph rolling on the floor with laughter, as well as Cass.
“What?” I laugh, feeling my shoulders rise and fall.
“We heard that whole thing-“ Steph wheezed out. “I didn’t know you could get any more southern than you already are.”
“Ehh, he’ll be ok.” I sit on the floor with them, trying to wind it down. However, me and Steph make eye contact once, sending both of us spiraling again.