Rose Wilson closed her eye as she took two deep breaths. She was in nothing but her bra and underwear, tied down to a chair in the center of a dark, musky room. Her Ravager costumer and katana blades were gone, taken away when she had gotten captured. She had no weapons, not even a single razor blade in her hair.
This was all part of the plan, everything was going according to plan. Rose kept telling herself this, but the scene told a different story. She was bleeding, covered in cuts and bruises from the beating. Sure, she'd put up a fight at first, but kicking the thugs' asses was not the plan. She to let herself get captured without anyone knowing she was letting them on purpose.
That meant Rose had to put up a convincing act and to do that she had to be careless, reckless. She had to let herself fall off the pier, into the bay. Rose was an excellent swimmer but she had to act like she was struggling to keep her head above the water. Rose had to let herself get pulled into the current and under the water and when she finally reached the surface again she had to act like she was drowning. When the thugs pulled her out of the water and proceeded to remove her weapons and clothes and beat her to a pulp, she had to act like she was almost dead.
But when it came to making the thugs think she was hurt, Rose didn't have to do much pretending, she really was in pain. Not just from the fight, but from the fact that her boyfriend, Jason Todd, had watched the entire scene from a rooftop nearby and had done nothing to help her. Of course, helping Rose wasn't part of the plan. And everything was going exactly according to plan, at least that's what Rose told herself while the thug beside her held a gun to her head.
The room was silent as Rose and the thugs that filled the room waited for the Red Hood. He had been contacted by the leader of the mobsters, Rose was now part of a ransom. The leader of the thugs was a powerful mafia member, one of the rising names in organized crime. Like most of Gotham's organized crime ring leaders he knew about the Red Hood. And he /thought/ he knew the secret to beating the Red Hood, the Red Hood's girl, Ravager. Thinking that he had the key to the Red Hood's undoing, he had called in his ransom. Rose Wilson's life, for the Red Hood's. Jason agreed to it without hesitation like an good boyfriend, it was part of the plan.
This was going to be a big bust for Jason, he'd been watching the rising mafia boss, Douvere , for nearly two months, and now he was making his move. Douvere thought all the cards were in his hands, but as always, Jason had a few things up his sleeve. For instance, the capture of Rose Wilson that had been thoroughly planned out to the T. Jason was going to get his bust and save Rose, he had promised. She had never been in any real danger at the beginning, but now, unarmed and outnumbered she needed Jason more than ever. She had to force herself not to recall the promises that Jason had made and broken in the past.
Suddenly there was a commotion outside, some sort of alarm had been triggered. Rose smirked, Jason was right on time. Of course Todd had watched the entire scene of Rose's capture. He had followed the thugs back to their hideout, an old Gotham bank, from a distance. While Rose was taken inside and while he received his ransom call from Douvere he had scoped out the area looking for security breaches and forming his bust and (hopefully) rescue plan. Rose tried not to doubt Jason, but she couldn't give him too much credit either.
"My boyfriend's coming to rescue me." Rose spoke up finally.
"Shut up girl." One of the thugs said. Ravager had to suppress the urge to grin. This was going to be easier than she thought.
"Gun is too high." She turned her head ever so slightly to look up at the thug holding the gun to her head.
"You were told to shut up." The gun-thug glared at her.
"I'm just trying to help you out. At this angle your bullet won't go anywhere near my membrane, you wouldn't deal me one bit of damage. I'm a metahuman, so unlike your puny human skull one misaimed blow to the head won't harm me in the least." She told him casually.
"Shhh I can't hear a thing!" One thug called out.
"Shut up girl!" Yelled another.
"She's bluffing!" A third said.
"Bluffing? Look at me I only have one eye and I'm still alive, I have advanced healing." Rose said smugly.
"If you had advanced healing you wouldn't have gone down so easily." The gun-thug said and Rose could tell he was trying to convince himself.
"Oh... Yes... You're right." She mumbled a coy grin making its way onto her face. "Mu getting captured could not possibly have been intentional. Congrats guys, you got me."
"Wait a second it's a trap!" One of the thugs shouted and the room started to buzz with excitement and rapid speaking. Two seconds later it was silenced with gunshots to the ceiling.
Standing in the threshold was the Red Hood in all his glory. In one hand was a gun, in the other arm was Douvere, the gun passed tightly against the mobster's head. "Make one move and your leader goes down." Jason said from under the hood.
The thug that had been holding the gun to Rose's head moved closer to Rose, lowering his aim slightly. Rose smirked that he had actually believed her, he was paranoid, all of them were. In one swift move Ravager stood up with the chair still attached to her and turned quickly to knock down the gun-thug with the chair. She jerked her legs out of the tight ropes and stood on the chair, jumping up high to break the ropes around her waist.
The room was loud, everyone was yelling trying to get Rose but Jason sent another warning shot at the ceiling to quiet them once again. Her arms were still tied behind her back and she took out one of the thugs that had moved too close to her. Finally she broke the rope from her wrists and located gun-thug who was picking himself up off the ground. She dashed beside him and kicked him back to the floor before leaning close to him.
"Still think I'm bluffing?" She giggled before punching him in the face. She heard the sound of bones breaking but she didn't let it phase her. She stood up and looked at Jason before nodding. "Now, if you'll just tell me where my swords and clothes are, we'll be on our way." She looked at the group.
No one said a word and Rose could hear Jason snicker. "They know they're going to die patchy, at least let the last thing they get to look at be you." It was a compliment, a very good one for Jason actually.
Rose moved to the nearest thug and kneed him in the stomachs making him keel over. She grabbed him by the hair and held him close. "Do you have a family? A wife, kids...? Don't answer that, I already know. Wouldn't it just be terrible if your pregnant wife should get in a car wreck coming home from grocery shopping? What if your daughter got into the wrong car on her way home from school and the driver happened to drive off a cliff?" Her voice like a snake in the thugs ear.
"Tell me. Where is my stuff?" She yelled pulling on his hair when something hit her from behind. The blow sent her crashing to the ground but she was picked up before she could move, a new gun held to her head.
"Don't you dare move Hood, or your girlfriend's pretty little head will get blown off. We don't care about Douvere, be doing us a favor by killing him... In fact..." The thug pulled his gun away from Rose's head and pointed it to Jason before pulling the trigger twice. Two perfectly aimed shots, both went directly to Douvere's head. Jason dropped the corpse as the thug pointed his gun back at Rose.
"I'm leading this operation, and you're all out of bartering tools. Now surrender yourself of watch the Ravager's pretty white hair turn red." Rose grimaced; this was not in the plan. This was not in the plan at all. "And if you make one step girl I'll shoot him til he can't get up again."
Rose took a breath, the tension in the room was suffocating and it was silent. "Riddle me this, oh wise leader." All eyes turned to Rose. "If you have us both in the perfect position, why don't you just kill us both, right now?"
"Because I've got bigger bats to fry." He laughed wickedly and Rose knew at once this had been their plan all along. The Douvere that Jason had found was a decoy, the real Douvere was the one holding the gun to her head. Well played.
"Well go ahead and kill her then." Jason said and Rose turned to face him in horror. "If you want to prove a point to other thugs or try and lure the Bat here, all you need is me. But every second you keep her alive makes me think that you're bluffing." Jason crossed his arms. "You're weak Douvere." So Jason had figured it out as well, Rose realized.
"You want me to kill your girlfriend?" Douvere raised an eyebrow.
"Sure, saves me having to break up with her." Jason chuckled a little bit and Rose looked at him in disgust. Even if Jason was just trying to play Douvere, he didn't have to be such an asshole about it.
"Fine, if that's what you want... Although I'll make you a deal. If you can get to me before she dies, I'll surrender and let you kill me without a fight." Douvere stood up a little straighter and Rose watched Jason uncross his arms.
"I always was a man with an eye for a bargain." The Red Hood said coldly. "Deal, go ahead, shoot her." He said looking up to the ceiling for the fraction of a second.
Rose heard Douvere cock the gun, his finger rubbing against the trigger. If she got out of this alive, she was never going to forgive Jason. Ever. As if her prayers had been answered, the ceiling crashed to the floor crushing many of the thugs. Out from the debris, the Batman stood tall, dark and brooding and now the center of attention in the room.
Within the next second he had pulled a batarang from his belt and flicked it to knock the gun out of Douvere's hand. He dashed towards the man and Rose, grabbing Rose from his grip and hit the ground with her in his arms. A flurry of bullets came their way and Batman shielded her from the shots. "Get out of here." He commanded in his deep, hoarse voice but Rose couldn't move.
Batman stood up pulling her with him. "You're welcome Bats." Jason said through the hood "Your little crash landing wouldn't have been so easy had I not loosened that ceiling for you."
"Shut up Hood." Batman commanded Jason before delivering a blow that Douvere could not possibly cover from. Rose could tell that this Batman was her old mentor, Dick Grayson. He wasn't as tall as the other one, and he was less merciful with Jason as the other one. Douvere moaned from the floor and Grayson was about to pick him up when two bullets dug their way into Douvere's head.
Jason blew the smoke away from his gun. "Come on Patchy. We're done here." He commanded but Rose didn't move.
"Dammit Jason!" Grayson grumbled looking at the dead body. Well he had gotten his bust, Douvere was dead. Jason pulled out a bottle of alcohol and sent it crashing to the floor, the contents spilling out and the glass shattered. Then he pulled out his gun again and aimed it at the floor.
"Let's go Rose." He said again but she stayed still. "I said-"
"Leave her alone Jason, if she doesn't want to go with you, she doesn't have to." Grayson said then turned to Rose. "You can come with me." He said gently.
"Dammit, Rose let's go!" Jason was yelling now.
"No." Rose said firmly.
"No? No?" Jason repeated and started laughing. "Fine, see you in the afterlife baby." He said laughing again before pulling the trigger, igniting the alcohol covered floor.
Grayson acted fast gripping Rose tightly and shooting a line up to the ceiling. Both of them flying up to the roof, Rose watched as Jason stood in the flames below, the Red Hood shining in the moonlight. The Batmobile was parked on the street below them, without a word Grayson grabbed Rose again and dropped to the street below, breaking the fall by spreading his cape out. When they were opened the door to the driver's seat and reached behind to grab something. He stood up straight and handed Rose a small black blanket before getting into the driver's seat. Rose wrapped the blanket around herself and sat into the passenger side, sighing deeply.
Grayson was silent as he drove the Batmobile away from the scene. He said nothing to her and for a moment Rose doubted that it was Grayson. Finally she decided to speak.
"You had Jason right there, you could have taken him." Rose almost whispered.
"I know." He mumbled coldly.
"You know? So why didn't you? You could have locked up the Red Hood and gotten rid of Douvere in the same night."
"I had more important priorities."
"Oh yeah, like what?" Rose wasn't sure why she was so angry but she was. Why hadn't he stopped Jason?
"Like getting you out of there alive, seems like I was the only one who cared whether you died or not." He looked at her and Rose sighed. He was right about that.
Somewhere Rose had been ready to forgive Jason for waging her life, just as she had forgiven her father for gambling her life as well. It seemed like a natural thing, to risk her life, and Rose had started thinking that perhaps her life really wasn't worth much after all.
But Grayson had never doubted it. He always cared about her and seemed to always point her in the right direction every time she was lost. He picked her up every time she fell and showed her that he really did care.
"Thank you." She mumbled.
"Why did you leave the Titans for him? They took care of you and no one ever put your life in danger for their own gain. Do you like being mistreated?"
"The Teen Titans weren't exactly loving either. I mean what did you expect? You put me on a team with people who don't trust me and never will." she crossed her arms under the cape-turned-blanket.
"Well can you blame them? But what I want to know is why Jason? Why not your father or someone else?"
"Oh please like I need educate /you/ in falling in love." She countered. He said nothing and she sighed. "Obviously I just left him. I just… It's going to be hard."
"I know Ravager, things like this are never easy, but sometimes you have to take the hard right." He said quietly. "Where should I take you?"
Rose looked at him confused. "What you mean like take me home?" She half-laughed when he nodded. "I live with Jason, I don't have a home."
"I suppose San Francisco is out of the question?"
"And be with the Titans again? Not likely." She huffed.
"Alright, fine, I'll take you back to the manor until you can figure something out." He said and Rose watched as he started slowing the Batmobile, as they approached a "Caution Road Ending" sign.
"Are you sure that's going to be alright… The old man won't mind if you bring Deathstroke's daughter home?" Rose was surprised, to say the least. As they arrived at what seemed like the end of the road, Rose watched in awe as the stone wall divided in two and opened like doors before her eye. The road continued into what Ravager could only assume was the infamous Batcave,
"As long as you don't make a mess Alfred doesn't care who I bring home. And trust me, there's been worse." He said not looking at her at all as he parked the Batmobile in the center of the massive cave.
That wasn't exactly the old man that she had meant, but she had no time to elaborate. Rose had never been in the Batcave before, she'd only heard of it. Jason liked to paint a picture of it for her, usually boring her out of her mine as he talked about what a horrible place it was. And even more so, what a horrible person Bruce Wayne, the original Batman and Jason's old mentor, was. He had told her all the Batfamily secrets that he knew, and Rose figured that Grayson had already deduced that, and that was why he was risking Wayne's wrath by bringing her back here.
Rose stepped out of the Batmobile, clutching the blanket tightly around her. She tilted her head up to look at the top of the Batcave, she couldn't see the top, it was so dark. There was a supercomputer and a glass case with old costumes. She'd heard about all of it from Jason, but being here, now, it all seemed so surreal.
"This place is huge!" Rose said taking a few steps around. She had only been in the room a few seconds when she heard footsteps coming from a large staircase to the side of the cave. She listened closer, two sets of footsteps. She took a breath and stepped back beside Grayson who was working on pulling off the cowl.
Rose saw the old butler who she could have only presumed was Alfred. It was when she saw the man behind him that her jaw nearly dropped.
"Rose?" The man said in an all too familiar voice. What the hell was going on here?
"G-Grayson?" She said looking at him. It was Grayson all right, she'd remember dat ass him from anywhere. But if Grayson had been here all along then who…
"Back so soon, Master Bruce?" The older man, Alfred said walking towards them. Rose turned her head and stared at Batman wide-eyed. He'd removed his cowl and Rose realized the undeniable truth, all along the Batman that she had assumed was Dick Grayson, was in fact Bruce Wayne. Oh shit.