I guess I'd kinda given up on this, but two people added it to their favorites and two lovely guests reviewed and well that was all it took to get me typing again * cracks knuckles*.
HOWEVER, another reason for my super ridiculously long hiatus was that I've been mapping out like a prequel/backstory for this fic. If I do end up going on with it, it'll be about Claudia and Jason in their teens and the five year gap in which Jason is establishing himself as Red Hood and I guess it'll basically fill in the unknowns and whatnot of this plotline. Also, I just wanted to see how well (aka terribly) I could write Jason falling in love. 'Cause honestly, if anyone deserves someone to love, it's Jason. But yeah, more updates on that later? Or for whoever's still bothering to read Red Dawn and Nightfall (seriously, bless you) then you can leave reviews or inbox me or however this works idk. Anyway, * throws arms out * here's the climax of this book!
(P.S. Last scene was definitely inspired by Captain America: the Winter Soldier. I just couldn't resist. I love that movie. I LOVE THAT MOVIE SO HARD U DON'T UNDERSTAND.)
00000
I was woken up by a sharp jostle.
Groaning, I forced my heavy eyelids open. Blinking the blurriness from my vision, I stared up at the ceiling, waiting for everything to come into focus. And when it did…
I wasn't in my room.
My body bolted upright in alarm. What…
My eyes flickered around, and – how the hell did I end up in a car?
My head snapped to the silhouette of the driver. Feeling my lip curl into a snarl, I reached out to grab their shoulder, keeping my other hand cocked back in a wary fist. "Who – "
The shadow's head turned around, and a streetlight slanted in through the passenger window to illuminate my mother's face.
I sucked in a breath and jerked my hand back. I froze.
Claudia smiled, but it quickly turned into an alarmed frown as she looked past me.
"We're being followed."
The déjà vu made something twist sickeningly inside me. I whipped around to look out the back window, squinting to make out a pair of headlights. They belonged to a pitch black SUV.
I whipped back around to stare at my mother. A tense expression tightened her face as she pressed on the gas.
Daring to stray slightly from the original script, I swallowed and asked shakily, "Why are we being followed?"
"Someone wants to abduct us." She quickly swerved onto another street. For the first time I noticed the streets were completely empty. Except for the SUV.
"Why? Who?" I asked quickly. My heart was beating faster.
Claudia exhaled and I saw her deep brown eyes look at me solemnly from the rearview mirror.
"She wants to use me– "
Bright lights suddenly blinded us and another vehicle slammed into us from the side and I plunged into darkness.
00000
Gasping loudly, I thrashed around in the tangled sheets and pushed myself into a sitting position with my eyes wide open. I could hear the blood roaring through my ears and feel my heart continue to pound frantically in my chest. Still breathing hard, I put a hand to my forehead and noticed my hair was damp with sweat.
"Shoot," I mumbled. Kicking the hot sheets off, I began peeling off my sticky shirt as I headed for my bathroom.
Locking the door behind me, I threw off the rest of my clothes and stepped underneath the showerhead, turning on only the cold water. I stood there with my eyes squeezed shut, committing the dream to memory before it could wisp away into the depths of my mind.
It was the third night in two weeks that I'd had the same dream, except each time a bit more was added to it; and each time it happened I was always stunned to see my mother.
The first night I had the dream, I'd only gotten to the part where I saw my mother's face before something crashed into us and woken me up. The second time, I hadn't thought to ask why we were being followed before we got demolished again.
This third time, I finally got something. Even if it was only a tiny bit useful.
My whole frame was shivering, so I shut the water off and threw on a bathrobe. Then I walked into my closet, pushing the clothes on the rack aside and rubbing my sore eyes.
A decent chunk of the wall was taped and thumb-tacked with my research, all connected with red string. Red because I didn't understand any of it.
Oh, and another thing: the dreams started two weeks ago, which was right about when I started this.
My subconscious had pretty good timing, in my opinion. I also realized how desperate I was to actually believe what my subconscious was telling me, but I wasn't about to risk losing any details, no matter how minor.
I grabbed a blank notepad and pen and sat on the floor, uncapping it with my teeth, and began jotting down:
Date of incident: June 8, 2009.
Time: 9:22 EST
Claudia had said we were on our way to the hospital to visit her friend Seth Levitt.
Seth Levitt is Nate Levitt's dad.
Jason wasn't with us. Where had Jason been? (Can't remember.)
What had happened to Seth? Why was he in the hospital? Who had put him there? Accident or on purpose?
We were being followed. By who? "Someone wants to capture us." – C.
Why did 'someone' want to capture us? "She wants to use me for…" – C.
Who is 'She'? Claudia knew who 'She' was.
Someone wanted to capture Claudia. Someone wanted to use her for something.
Did they want to use me, too? If yes, what did they want to use me for?
There were two cars. One in the back. Another appeared from the left.
Henchmen? Or was 'She' behind one of the wheels?
Didn't 'She' want Claudia abducted, not dead?
Why was it basically a hit and run?
Why did they leave us for dead?
How did they know when to make their move?
Did they know Jason wouldn't be with us?
Did they know Seth was in the hospital?
Did they put Seth in the hospital?
WHO THE HELL IS THEY?!
My handwriting had gotten sloppier and sloppier and I finally tossed the pen and notepad aside in frustration, pulling my fingers through my wet hair instead. I got up, put on running shorts, a plain white t-shirt, and tied on a pair of Nikes. I tied up my hair as I walked out of the closet and checked the clock on my wall – 5:43 AM. I had plenty of time for a seven-mile run before getting back in time to get ready for school.
I silently closed my bedroom door behind me and walked briskly down the gloomily dark hallway and downstairs. The whole manor was blissfully silent.
I walked out one of the side doors of the manor, and the cold morning air was enough to freeze my skin. I did a couple warm-up stretches, and then I was off at a steady pace away from the manor.
00000
I'll have you know, I didn't get very far.
Gotham was already trickling with life, some cars here and there, though most of the shops were still closed and the sidewalks were pretty much cleared except for trash. It was also still rather dark.
I rounded the corner at breakneck speed when someone suddenly jumped out at me, grabbing me and pinning me against the wall with my arms down at my sides. My opened to screech indignantly, but a hand clamped over my mouth, and I glared irritably at Eddie.
"Don't yell at me," he said simply, a smirk broadening his face. I narrowed my eyes. He let me go.
"Why do you always find the need to do that?" I demanded, albeit not too harshly. I stepped away from the wall and rubbed my bare arms.
I hadn't seen Eddie in the last four consecutive days. (Okay, that was mostly on me due to dealing with my insanity and all. But he hadn't made any move to contact me, either.) Only four days and suddenly he seemed older. The angles in his face were sharper, more defined. His eyes appeared more observant, though also tired. Were those shadows under his eyes, or was it the lack of proper lighting?
I felt myself loosen in begrudging concern, "Uh, are you okay?"
His smirk faded infinitesimally and he rubbed a hand over his face, "I'm actually a little worried." He glanced around the street wearily and focused his attention back on me, "It's about Dick."
Of course, I shifted to lean back casually against the brick wall, arms folded in front of my chest. "What about him?"
"He told me – well, you know he went out of town to work on a case, right?" Eddie suddenly looked tense – I could see the way his jaw clenched.
"Yes, I know that," I replied coolly. "I didn't know you knew that."
Eddie snorted, and I caught a glimpse of his usual self. "I live with the guy. Of course I was bound to notice he was gone. He told me he'd be out for – "
"Wait." I pushed myself off the wall with my eyebrows raised, "You live with Dick?!"
"Alex, you knew that already." Eddie sighed patiently.
I opened my mouth to protest, but suddenly remembered that yeah, Dick had told me. Right after I'd found out he'd helped Eddie become Nightfall.
I pressed my lips together and rubbed my eyes, "Right. I forgot. I'm sorry. I'm tired."
"Well it is barely six in the morning." His eyebrows raised, momentarily straying off topic, "You've been up earlier than usual these past couple of weeks."
I waved my hand dismissively, not ready to tell him about the dreaming. "Yeah uh – " I stopped, "Have you been stalking me?"
"Wow. You couldn't have said 'watching out for you,' or something less accusatory and creepy?"
I quirked an eyebrow and said tersely, "Have you?" If he'd been following me around at all within the past two weeks, then he probably definitely knew I was up to something. I tried to keep my expression cool.
Eddie rolled his eyes to the heavens, then away from me, then directly at me.
"You've sure been spending a lot of time with Nate," he finally said plaintively.
Uh, okay, I hadn't expected him to say that. "Well, yeah. What's the big deal about that?"
"Nothing. It's just – " he appeared to struggle with what he wanted to say before exhaling loudly, "You know what? This is kinda getting off track." He was serious again, "Look, about two and a half weeks ago Dick told me he had to work a personal case. He said he'd be out of town for at least a week, and that he'd keep me posted if he ended up needing an extra day or two. So I gave it a week. He didn't contact me the next day. Or the day afterwards. Nothing. It's been two whole weeks and I haven't heard a peep from him." He looked at me almost pleadingly, "I wanted to know if maybe you or anyone else from your family has heard anything from him."
"I know they know about him leaving for a case, but I don't think he's contacted them, either. He didn't even tell me about his case," I said bitterly, "I had to find out from Gordon."
Eddie's eyes widened slightly, "So…you know, then. You know he's tracking your murderer." His voice softened.
"You knew?!" I immediately shouted. I clenched my hands angrily, "You knew and you didn't tell me?"
"Alex – "
"You're my best friend, you idiot, how could you not tell me?!" I shoved at his shoulder, making him back up a step.
He held his hands up in surrender, "Because Dick told me not to! Alex, he was trying to protect you – "
"I don't need to be protected from anything by anyone!" I snarled. "Why doesn't anyone get that?" I pointed at myself, "This is about me and my mother! I have every right to know everything about this case and every damn right to figure out who ruined my life!"
"Alex you'd be risking your life all over again. Why don't you ever get that?" Eddie threw his arms out in exasperation.
"Well guess what," I said flatly, "I've been working this case myself. And am I dead yet? No, I'm standing right here having this stupid conversation with you. And you wanna know why I've been spending a so much time with Nate?" I noticed his eyes narrow the slightest bit. "Because he understands me. He was the first one I went to about this and he agreed to help, no questions asked. And no one was supposed to know about this, but I just told you, but apparently it doesn't matter because you knew anyway!"
"I would have helped you," Eddie said heatedly.
"But you said – "
"Jesus, I care about you, Alex!" he exclaimed, and I shut up from surprise. "Of course I'm going to freak out about you dealing with something as insane as this! I always have." He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, exhaling. "But if you'd come to me first, I would have helped you." He opened his eyes and stepped closer until I felt the cool brick wall at my back and he placed his left palm against it, leaning forward, "I'm going to." He said sincerely. His face softened, "Okay?"
I stared at him before relenting reluctantly. "Fine."
Eddie didn't budge. Neither did I.
Seconds ticked by when finally a small smile eased itself onto his tired face, "I've missed you."
"Yeah. I know," I answered with mock nonchalance. He snickered, ducking his head, and my brain couldn't quite register what was happening as he began to lean in carefully, his eyelids lowering sleepily…
My watch suddenly beeped and he pulled back abruptly, letting his hand fall back at his side. I felt my hands clench silently at my sides as an unexpected sinking feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
"I have to get back," I said, but my voice came out sounding hoarse. I cleared my throat and tried to shake off whatever it was I was feeling.
"I'll see you after you're done with school?" he offered. I didn't miss the hopeful-puppy-dog-eyes expression.
"Sure," I felt myself smile, then mentally slapped myself. Jeez! Was my immunity to his so-called 'charms' withering away? What was happening to me?!
"Great," he straightened, shoving his palms into his jean pockets and grinning almost goofily. "I'll see you then."
"Whatever," I grumbled, albeit playfully. And then, wondering what the hell was up with my brain this morning, I turned and ran back towards the manor.
00000
I came in through the side door again, entering the kitchen and aiming straight for the fridge.
A small shadow suddenly lunged in front of me, and I reacted immediately – snapping my arm out and gripping their shoulder to slam them back against the fridge.
They latched their hand onto my wrist pinning them in place and twisted it behind my back, shoving me face front onto the fridge door.
"Try that again and I'll crush your radius next time," Damian said, sounding somehow both irritated and wounded. I felt myself loosen in surprise and a pinch of guilt – he actually sounded like a little kid.
He easily let me go (um, also not like him) and I turned around to see him in pajama sweats and a blue shirt. His hair was all feathered up and he looked…small, somehow. And, it made me feel…older.
"Sorry," I said softly, because I was and mostly because it looked like he needed to hear it.
"Tt," he ticked, and rubbed at his nose with the sleeve of his shirt.
"Why'd you sneak up on me?" I grumbled, gently moving him to the side so I could open the fridge.
"Why are you so paranoid?" he retaliated, although not harshly.
"Are you kidding me? Like 99.1 percent of my training consisted of you dweebs jumping out at me to test my reflexes." I pulled out the carton of milk and shut the fridge with my foot, setting the carton on the island and rummaging through the cabinets for a bowl. "Besides, if I hadn't reacted you would probably definitely be chastising me right now." I snorted, grabbing the box of Cocoa Rice Crispies and dumping it into the cereal bowl.
"No I wouldn't," Damian said glumly. I paused in pouring my milk and looked up at him, puzzled.
"Uhhh," I looked around the kitchen, hoping someone else would pop in and handle this weird situation. Nope. It was just me. I sighed, pushed my breakfast aside, and sat on the stool, folding my hands together and leaning forward slightly, "Are you okay?"
His reserved posture gave away his hesitance, but he pulled out the stool across from me and hopped to sit on it. His eyes lowered to the marble countertop and I was really thrown off – I'd never seen him like this.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, this time with more concern.
There was a long, long pause, me waiting patiently, and I was finally rewarded with him lifting his blue, blue eyes to look at me – and I immediately felt dread freeze through my veins as I recognized the expression in his gaze; it was one I personally was all too familiar with, but not from him.
Damian was scared.
"I don't know where Grayson is."
Silence. I didn't say a word. I was suddenly exhausted.
"What?" I said hoarsely, rubbing a hand over my eyes. Eddie flashed through my mind and I felt deep sympathy towards him.
Damian bowed his head, "He was letting me keep tabs on him, because he didn't want me to worry." I stiffened, feeling a sudden stab of jealousy. "But I lost him. He vanished. I tried to get a hold of his coordinates, but I couldn't triangulate his location. I've been trying for almost a week."
"And you're barely fessing up now?" I said flatly. Seeing his withered expression, I unclenched my fists and exhaled slowly.
"I notified Todd." Damian muttered. My head snapped up and he narrowed his eyes at me patronizingly. "Why do you think he left three days ago?"
"Roy said they were going to Star City," I retorted, almost daring him to tell me otherwise. "To pay Oliver and Dinah and visit."
Damian stared at me for a ridiculously, unnecessary amount of time, and I stared back.
"What?" I finally demanded acidly.
"Really, Todd, you've fooled yourself into believing that you've mastered the art of keeping secrets, just like any naïve child."
"And what are you?" I snapped back, feeling my temper boil.
"I'm the one who knows them all," he scoffed back.
"Yeah, right," I scoffed bitterly.
"Fine," he allowed, "I'm the son of the one who knows them all."
Feeling my anger build and build like a steaming kettle of boiling water, I fisted my hands again, feeling my fingernails bite into my palm.
Damian's eyes didn't waver from mine as he said plaintively, "We know what you've been doing, Alex. You shouldn't take this family as some sort of petty joke."
Jerking my chair back, I grabbed my full bowl off the island and slammed it hard into the sink. I turned on the cold water at full blast.
"My father caught on to what you were doing about two and a half days after you started," Damian continued, "I figured it out by hacking into the Cave's database, which was where he was keeping tabs on your research activities – using Nate as a shield was admittedly clever, but you couldn't hide behind that long enough. Anyway, Drake caught me red-handed, so that was how he found out. None of us told Todd, though, because we had the common sense to predict how that bomb would go off. So we let you assume you had the lead. My father fed you, or Nate, the information you sought. Small props to you on connecting the clues in your closet, by the way."
I shut the water off and whipped around, trying very hard to suppress the urge to scream.
"Anything. Else?" I bit out through clenched teeth.
"Grayson was defrosting the cold case about your accident," he said, with less of a hard mocking edge to his voice, "I'd known only that, and of his whereabouts since I was tracking him on father's satellite." I mentally face-palmed myself because I really didn't care about the technicalities at this point, "But he's off the grid now. Are you even remotely aware of how challenging it is to get off the grid?"
"Obviously not very since Dick did," I replied sarcastically.
Damian ignored my snide comment, "He must have lost the microchip in his arm. Which means he's in trouble because you can't just lose something embedded that close to your nerves."
"Microchip?" I echoed, exasperated.
"Do you remember when father first took you in and we took you to the doctor for an update on your shots?"
"Yes," I answered bitterly.
"Well one of those injections had the tracker and well that's how father found out – "
"I get it!" I shrieked. "Jeez, I get it!" I slammed my palm on the countertop and leaned forward threateningly again, "I need to know where my dad is."
Damian's face turned serious again, "Roy is in Star City. He's digging up his own information about Claudia Ramirez. Jason is in New York, where I last sighted Grayson. He's digging deeper."
"Why was Dick there?" I demanded.
Damian rolled his eyes, and I ground my teeth in irritation. "Because that's where your mother lived before she moved here."
More silence. I sat back down, feeling emotion wash over me in tidal waves.
"Of all the places on the entire planet," I mumbled, "she moved here."
"She had her reasons," Damian said quietly, watching me.
I opened my mouth to ask more, but a strangled sound came out instead, and I buried my head in my folded arms.
I squeezed my eyes shut as my brain processed the undeniable fact that pretty much my entire family had kept the truth from me. Boy, I was an idiot.
But it was still my mission.
"I'm finishing it," I breathed, opening my eyes again.
"What do you mean?" Damian's brows furrowed.
I ignored him, standing up and walking briskly out the kitchen. Just as I swerved the corner, I collided into Tim in his pj's, though my velocity caused him to stagger back two steps.
"Whoa," he said, holding his palms up in mock surrender, "where's the fire?"
Feeling my fingers twitch in irritation, I pushed both hands up and shoved him back further so that he almost stumbled backward into the lampshade. Swiftly balancing himself, he blinked up at me in stunned surprise.
"Stay out of my way," I said icily. I felt Damian's wide eyes on my back, but I ignored both of them and marched up the stairs.
Slamming the door open, I began pulling and clawing out of my sweaty sportswear and throwing on a pair of jeans and a dark blue v-neck. I stepped into a pair of sneakers, hooked utility belts in an X across my chest and back, and another hung loosely around my waist. I stormed into my closet, lugging out a duffel bag. I snatched random pieces of clothing out of my drawers and threw them in, along with other necessities, and zipped it shut.
Looking around my shadowed room for what suddenly felt like the last time, I grabbed my red hoodie from my chair, shrugged it on, and shut the door behind me.
I was downstairs again in a minute, snatching a random pair of keys from the bowl near the front entrance and started making my way to the garage door.
"Hey, hey, hey," Tim appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my bicep in alarm, "Alex what do you think you're doing?"
"What, haven't you figured it out? I thought you were good at that." I replied acidly.
He frowned, "You're not going anywhere. You have school, you can't –"
"Are you serious?!" I jerked my arm free, "This is my mother we're talking about, Tim! Someone wanted both of us abducted and Dick went missing trying to find out who and Jason and Roy are probably gonna be next and I don't see Bruce anywhere and you're telling me I have to go to school?"
"Why are you always trying to get yourself killed?" Tim demanded abruptly, raising his voice.
"What?" I said incredulously.
"You do it so recklessly that you're not even consciously aware that you're doing it!" he pointed accusatorily at me.
"Oh please," I snorted, "This entire family is putting their lives on the line on a daily basis. How am I any different?"
"You're not doing it for the same reasons we are. We're doing it to protect others, to protect this city."
"And I'm not?" I said icily.
"You're doing it for yourself."
"Excuse me?"
"You're Tim's scowl softened, "You've died before."
"Haven't all of you?" I muttered with a roll of my eyes.
"In the beginning when Bruce had you see a therapist – "
"That was only for like two days," I interrupted irritably.
Tim continued patiently, "you were given a behavioral test. The test results had been sent back – "
"No one told me that. Then again, no one ever tells me anything."
"You're suicidal, Alex. It's serious."
I raised an eyebrow, "So?"
"It's not normal," Tim said, his tone strained.
"Look around! Do we look normal to you?!"
"That's not the point! You're severely prone to committing suicide and that's why we never told you anything! We knew you'd react like this! Jason knew you'd react like this!" I felt my jaw drop. "You never think twice about your own safety – have you ever noticed that? You throw yourself into the fire without flinching because deep down you know you don't care if you never come back! You don't want to come back!"
I felt frozen. And then I felt sick. Because from some shriveled-up corner in the darkest depths of my mind…I knew he'd nailed me.
"No," I heard myself whisper. I didn't know if I was denying him. Or agreeing with him.
"I'm sorry," Tim said softly, "But we're not letting our sister leave."
Something inside me ached. I was tired again.
"I'm sorry, too" I mumbled. Then I struck out and snatched his elbow, bent it at an awkward angle, kicked his knees out from under him, and used my other hand to strike at the chakra point on his neck.
I felt his body slacken as he immediately lost consciousness, and I whipped out a pair of handcuffs from my back pocket, cuffing him to the staircase.
I turned around, tensing for Damian, but he stayed in place.
"I'll go with you," he said firmly.
"Not a chance little brother," I replied swiftly, picking up my duffel bag again and clutching the keys in my hand.
"Then you'll have to waste more time trying to stop me from stopping you." He challenged tauntingly.
"Didn't you hear Tim?" I turned halfway and gazed at him wearily – I really was tired. "I don't care if I die."
I could've sworn I saw his expression crumple. "That's why I'm going." He jutted his chin out in resoluteness.
I glared at him, then flickered my attention back to a still unconscious Tim. He wasn't going to stay like that for very long. And don't even get me started on his jiggling-out-of-handcuffs record time because it was ridiculous.
"Fine," I said, looking back to Damian in his pajamas before turning to stride away, "You get one minute to change."
00000
I'd taken the Lamborghini. Obviously. And no, I did not let Damian drive because I didn't have time to get pulled over by the police and get seriously questioned on why I, a not-legal-adult, was letting an even-less-of-a-legal-adult, drive a super expensive speedy car that was stolen from Bruce Wayne's garage. Though as human beings with the last name 'Wayne' on our records, arrested didn't even dare to exist in our vocabulary. But I didn't need anyone to alert the guy that I was acting like a lunatic or that I had his illegitimate child in the passenger seat with me. Alfred was going to wake up and find out eventually anyway. And by eventually I meant like maybe an hour.
"You better be giving me the right directions," I threatened as I drove us completely out of Gotham and onto the empty road – no one sane enough would come into Gotham City.
So why had my mom?
"I am," Damian replied hotly, holding my iPhone up and showing me the route on Google maps. "See? It says it'll take us three hours in current traffic to get there. Tt," he clicked, "have some faith in me, Todd."
"You didn't seem to have any faith in me driving," I muttered under my breath.
"What DMV conductor in Gotham wouldn't give any ward of Bruce Wayne's a driving permit?" Damian retorted. "Even I could get one."
"Are you currently behind the wheel? Yeah. I didn't think so." I'd gotten my permit about two months ago. Wasn't that big of a deal. I'd known how to hijack cars when I was on the streets, mostly thanks to Eddie; it was basically the same thing, in my opinion.
I pressed my lips together – he'd be waiting outside of Gotham Academy later today, not knowing where the hell I'd gone off to until Alfred or Tim let him know. Nate wouldn't know, either.
My fingers tapped on the wheel and I sped up just an inch.
"Don't try my patience, Todd," Damian's voice came back into focus, "We have three hours in this confined space and I'm not about to get in trouble by – " he cut himself off and looked out the window.
"Murdering me with your pinkie?" I offered with a snicker. He stiffened.
"Jeez, who would've thought me being severely suicidal would have its perks." I joked.
His eyes flared as he stared at me, and I raised an eyebrow at him, keeping my eyes on the road.
"Lighten up, will you?" I jibed, gently elbowing him in the ribs. "I was kidding."
He turned away almost angrily.
I opened my mouth to ask, but his posture warned me to drop it. It was quiet again. Small raindrops sprinkled onto the windshield from the lightly overcast sky.
"Do you ever think about all the people that actually care about you?" he demanded abruptly.
Okay, I guess he hadn't wanted to drop it.
"What are you talking about?" I sighed.
Then his voice came out sounding so small and confused that I couldn't believe the boy next to me was Damian. "What did you do to make everyone love you so much?"
"What are you talking about?" I repeated, because I was too dumfounded to say anything else.
His harsh demeanor returned, and I was starting to get whiplash trying to keep up. "This family accepted you almost immediately," He interrupted me as I began to protest, "And don't even deny it! Grayson went missing trying to find who killed you and your mother. Harper enjoys playing football with you. Drake always watches out for you at school to make sure you're okay even though no one tells him to do that anymore. Alfred makes chocolate lava cakes because he knows they're your favorite. Todd brags about you all the time like any proud father, and he tells Grayson about how he always regrets leaving you for all those years. And my father? Well, he had no trouble deciding he loved you, too. Why else do you think he let you be Red Dawn? Everyone just loves you." He said the last part wounded. I was speechless.
"And…that bothers you." It wasn't really a question.
"No," he sniffed. "What bothers me is that despite having all of us, it turns out you're suicidal, of all things."
I nodded slowly. "Oh."
"It's pitiful."
I bristled and hit the brakes – which was okay because the road ahead was still empty – making us jostle forward.
I put the handle brake on and glared fiercely at a startled Damian, "Don't you ever, ever call me that. There are over a billion adjectives in the world to describe my life, but don't you ever refer to my life as being that." I threatened furiously. I shifted my eyes back to the road and released the handle brake, pressing on the gas. The silence stretched on for another hour, then two hours. Damian had fallen asleep. It was raining. Cars gradually filled the road as we got closer and closer to New York.
We made it.
"Todd."
"What?" I said without looking at him.
From my peripheral, I saw him sit upright and crane his neck to look out the back window.
"What?" I repeated urgently. My eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, and I felt like a brick of lead had dropped down to my stomach.
"We're being fol - "
A black SUV abruptly screeched into our lane behind us and slammed us forward.
My head snapped forward, and when I lifted my head I saw another vehicle swerve into the lane directly in front of us and backed up, smashing into us.
"Shit," I hissed. The blood roaring in my ears, I put the car in reverse and slammed on the gas, burning rubber, and barely managed to give us an inch of a gap between the two SUV's. I threw the car into drive and hit the gas pedal again, spinning the wheel and screeching away.
"Damian!" I shouted. He lifted his head dazedly, his green hood flopped over his head. "Damian I need you to stay down – "
A third black SUV screeched in from our left, bumping its tires against ours and nudging us into the fourth SUV on our right.
We were completely surrounded.
My mother suddenly flashed through my mind in searing light: "Someone wants to abduct us."
Rapidly blinking the memory away and gulping down my terror, I focused on the road again.
It was happening again.
"Roll the windows down!" Damian shouted, reaching into his sweater for something.
I did. I held my breath and tightened my fingers on the wheel.
Damian pulled out two handfuls of EMP disks and pulled himself halfway out the window. I watched as he flung all four disks in a 360 degree swing, and watched as each disk stuck like a magnet to each SUV. Damian clicked something in his jacket, and ripples of electricity coursed over the vehicles.
Just as the SUV in front of us started veering out of control, I pulled out my handgun, stuck my arm out the window, and fired at its back tires so that it steered onto the left, crashing into the other SUV, and they both derailed off the road, crashing into other vehicles. The SUV behind us stopped functioning completely, and so did the one at our right. Cars behind them swerved and honked their horns. I never took my foot off the gas, getting as much ground between us as possible.
Damian climbed back in, looking at me in some horror and shock, "Where did you get that?!"
I didn't have time to answer – I squinted out the severely cracked window to distinguish a small figure shrouded in smoke and rain about a hundred yards away. It was standing right in our way and we were quickly approaching it.
The figure was a person, dressed in black padding and black army boots; a mask covered the lower half of their face and black goggles shielded their eyes. They appeared to be holding some kind of giant sized weapon.
It pointed straight at us.
They fired.
Not this time, I thought to myself. Not again.
In a split second, I unclipped my seatbelt, lunged for Damian, shot the passenger window, and hurtled us out of the car just as the explosive struck the Lamborghini.
The force of the debris pushed us forward, but I tightened my arms around Damian and clenched my teeth as I took the full blunt of slamming onto the gravelly road. We skidded forward a couple more feet before finally rolling to a stop.
"Shit," I wheezed out, releasing Damian so I could let the pain ripple through my body.
He sat up, looking stunned and with a thin scratch racing across his cheekbone to the corner of his mouth (probably from a shard of glass), but otherwise unharmed. "Are you okay?"
Nothing felt broken, but my entire frame still ached from the hard impact. The skin of my hands and arms stung sharply from scraping the jagged ground, but my hoodie had kept most of me protected from any minor damage. "Terrific," I bit out, hissing through gritted teeth. "Just give me a minute."
His bright blue eyes flickered to farther up the road. He squinted, "I don't think we have a minute."
Groaning, I pushed myself into a half sitting position and followed his gaze. Chunks of car parts and fire littered the entire road. Cars halted a hundred yards away or swerved to avoid collision. Smoke steamed from several feet away, and from there emerged a shadow.
Fear suddenly spiked its way through my system, and I dug my fingernails into the ground as my breaths grew shorter. Something felt terribly, terribly wrong.
The shadow was a woman with long braided dark hair. She strode toward us with purpose.
"Someone wants to abduct us."
Damian got to his feet and readied himself into a stance. I felt rooted into the ground.
"Who?"
Damian shrugged off his pine green sweatshirt, revealing a black t-shirt and two utility belts crossed in an X across his front and back, with another hanging at his waist.
"She wants to use me as a weapon."
She dropped the explosive devise and suddenly broke into a sprint, closing the gap between us in seconds.
Damian charged forward, reaching into one of the belts to pull out something – but I would never know what it was because she struck out like a viper, snatching Damian's wrist and flinging him away.
He soared through the air, but somersaulted and landed in a crouch. He charged again at her back, but she ducked his roundhouse kick and struck his leg out from under him, making him crash to the ground. She lifted him by the collar of his shirt. Damian tried to knee at her stomach, but she smashed her forehead into his and threw him back onto the ground like a rag doll.
Then she turned to me.
Trying not to visibly quake, I flipped onto my feet.
She pulled out a knife from a pouch in her forearm and twirled it in her right hand.
I put the shotgun back in its holster and I pulled out the Kris blade from the strap at my thigh. I mimicked her exact motions, switching the blade from hand to hand. I jutted my chin out, steeling myself.
You're not my mother.
I charged first.
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P.P.S. This was all word vomit and I didn't know where to split this gigantic chapter and the next one (which I'm still writing) so I stopped it here. Yes. I love cliffhangers. No. I'm never sorry.