Disclaimer: These are not my characters. This is not my world. I own nothing DC. But I like it.
Warnings: Violence.
This is a BlueBird oneshot. No sex but implied relationship and a dose of angst. Hope someone enjoys it!
Jaime was a zombie. Okay, not a real zombie, but that was what it felt like. He was trapped inside his own body. He could watch the world from his eyes but without control of his physical form. He walked, he talked, he even fought, but it wasn't him. He was in the backseat to the scarab and the Reach.
'Where are we going?' Jaime demanded. He recognized these streets, even at night. 'We shouldn't be here,' he said louder inside his own head. This was Bludhaven. He couldn't be here. He couldn't run into Nightwing like this.
'We have business, Jaime Reyes,' Scarab replied briskly.
'What business?' he asked, his voice more worried than he wanted it to be.
He had been here before. He had taken this street, this alley, this fire escape. His chest hurt even when it wasn't his anymore. 'Please don't do this,' Jaime whispered. It was the first time he had asked, the first time he had begged since they took control.
'It is necessary to cripple the enemy,' Scarab said simply in reply. 'We know his weakness. His secrets.'
'Don't.' His soul cringed when the Blue Beetle smashed the window, glass sprayed inward across hardwood just before boots crushed the shards into dust.
The apartment was dark, lit only by the lights of the night city outside. It wasn't a big place. A kitchen and a couch. A desk and a bed. The covers were tossed and in the corner stood a young man. His skin gleamed pale and shirtless, pajama pants clinging to his hips and bare feet on the floor. Dark hair fell around white cheeks and Blue Beetle noted the eskrima he held in either hand. He slept with them close by. It was all information the Scarab had gathered from Jaime's time spent around Nightwing and in this apartment.
Through his own eyes, Jaime watched Dick looking back at him but could not begin to image what expression was on the Beetle's face. Nightwing didn't approach and for a long moment they just stared at one another. It looked like he was trying to decide what to make of the Blue Beetle. He knew enough to know Jaime wasn't driving this body anymore and yet it seemed like he was looking for him in those orange eyes.
"Nightwing," the ambassador spoke with Blue Beetle's voice.
'No! Leave him alone!' Jaime seethed.
"Reach." Dick wouldn't call what was in front of him the Blue Beetle. He wasn't willing to let that title be dirtied by what was to come next.
'It isn't a fair fight!' Jaime tried desperately.
The Blue Beetle laughed, the sound was nothing like Jaime.
'It was never going to be a fair fight,' the Ambassador explained cruelly. 'Your dalliance with him has proven helpful to the Reach.'
The Blue Beetle rushed forward toward that corner and the human that stood in it. 'No!' Jaime screamed but his fist still swung. The movements were fast but the Blue Beetle kept Grayson cornered by walls, strategic not to break them for him and give the human a way out. Every time he moved for a door, a window or a drawer that no doubt housed weaponry, the Blue Beetle was there with speed and strength not even the best of humans could outmatch with skin alone.
One eskrima broke and it wasn't long before the other was lost. Jaime was screaming but the Beetle only smiled when his fist came down across that pale cheek to swing Dick's body back against the wall. Jaime watched his hand grab the back of that head, fingers in dark hair, and slam Dick's skull against the wall again before letting him fall to the floor. 'Stop! Stop please!' he begged but his leg kicked, cracking ribs and throwing Dick's body across the room and into the wall.
The Beetle laughed again on his way to the human. He bent and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up the wall and leaning in close. His cheek was split over the bone and bleeding down the side of his face but those blue eyes opened to glare back at him. The glare faltered when he took in the face. The Blue Beetle, but still Jaime and it seemed Dick didn't have the strength to glare at him. His eyes looked like they were searching again, staring deep into those orange and black pits.
Finger tightened around that fragile throat and Jaime watched his lover's mouth open to draw pointlessly at air. 'Stop! Anything! I'll give you anything is you stop!'
'We have everything you can give,' the Ambassador replied with a smile. 'They all have to die, be glad this fight was made quick by the surprise.'
'Scarab, please!' Jaime cried, staring back at Dick, watching his body struggle to get away from that choking hand, his heels kicking and denting the wall behind him.
All Jaime could do was watch. All he could do was stare into those blue eyes and watch his hand strangle the life from the lips he'd loved. He was screaming and yet the only sound in that room was that of Dick's arms falling to his sides, wrists smacking the wall behind him. Tears slid out of those eyes before they closed and Jaime couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. He was never going to see those eyes open again. No one was ever going to see them again.
He didn't even hear the crumbling of the wall near the window when it busted in around an unbreakable body. He didn't feel anything when he was pushed to the side and through another wall, landing in a pile in the hallway. His arms pushed him to his feet again and his body swung to the side to watch Super Boy's lips curl with a snarl, arms catching Dick before he could hit the ground.
Before Blue Beetle could chase, the super clone was gone and so was Nightwing.
There was relief, in the misery that had already swallowed his heart. If Nightwing had been dead already, Super Boy would have known and he wouldn't have left the scene. If Dick Grayson had been dead, Connor would have killed the Blue Beetle or died trying.
For the first time since the Reach put him on mode, Jaime had nothing to say.