Chapter Thirty-Seven: Special Privileges
"Ha, you're actually relaxing. Did you seriously think I was finished with you?"
A mocking female voice woke Red X from his half-hearted sleep. He opened his eyes and groaned.
"I thought I wasn't allowed to have visitors," he growled, staring menacingly at the girl outside his cell.
"I'm a Titan you idiot. Special privileges," she snapped back.
"Wow, you're this angry, yet you haven't gone into your mad red-headed rage form yet. Too bad. I think red-heads are sexy," he said carelessly.
If looks could kill, Red X would have been struck dead by the glare Em gave him.
"You held back. The only thing I wanted was to beat you fair and square, to rub your face in it and never let you live it down. And you held back. You just can't let me win, can you?! What did I do to you that was so horrible?!" she ranted angrily.
"Come now, I hold no ill will toward any of my enemies, you accursed little witch," he replied airily, but Em could tell he was just saying that to cover the truth up.
She walked straight up to the bars, reached through, and grabbed the front of his shirt. She pulled him so he was barely a foot away from her.
"You're not nearly as scary without your mask," she hissed.
He scowled at her. "Yeah no kidding. You couldn't even let me keep it?" he muttered resentfully.
"You couldn't even show me a fair fight?" she replied. She could tell that her nearness was making him nervous, and she got quite a lot of satisfaction from it. "You make it seem like it was just a ploy to get away, and it worked quite well that way, and then you go and give yourself up to a merciless rage-fueled beating.
"I thought I'd gotten rid of you. I thought I'd never have to think about you again. I thought I could just let you rot here in jail. But now, because you held back, you've just opened yourself up to more pain. What do you want from me?!" Em shrieked.
The blond boy looked at her thoughtfully. "You don't remember me, do you?" he asked quietly.
Em let go of his shirt abruptly and backed away. "No. Oh no. No no no no no!" she stammered. "You are not about to tell me what I think you're about to tell me!"
"I lived in that town, Em. I knew you. I knew Terra," he began slowly and clearly. Em was shaking her head slowly, eyes closed, trying not to listen. "I always used to pick on you when we were little. You were very strong for a six year old. You never cared. I only did it so you would notice me."
Em's memories were flooding back. She was backed up against the wall behind her, reliving her past.
A blond boy with bright green eyes and a mischievous smile was always pulling her hair or calling her 'Flemily'. The little brown haired girl with the ghost white eyes would stick her tongue out at him and laugh with her friend, another little girl with long blond hair and blue eyes. The boy would walk away pouting, only to return and try again later.
"I went after you when you left," he continued, a little louder now. "I came to Jump City after you, and I never found you. An old lady took me in, but she died when I was ten. I became a thief, a criminal, living one day at a time. Then I got my hands on Robin's suit and became Red X. You know the rest."
"No…" Em was whispering with her eyes closed tightly. "You can't be him… you can't be… Jase…"
"Hey, you do remember me," Jase said, flashing his smile, that same smile that he had worn ten years ago.
"God, Jase! Why did you follow me? Why do you have to do this to me?!" Em shouted. She ran from the prison. Jase sat down on the floor of his cell and sighed.