Gotham City, Gotham City Cemetery - May 26th- 4:30 P.M.-
It was a clear day, it didn't feel like a funeral was taking place at all. The majority of the Justice League and the team had shown up, all wearing black and standing in the back as Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson, Barbara Gordon, and Alfred Pennyworth mourned next to the tombstone. The name carved in the grave was none other than Jason Todd's, and it hadn't felt real until they actually read it.
Jade Collins was among the last people to arrive, she walked up to the team and stood in silence beside them as they watched others moving towards the grave to pay their respects. "Where were you?" asked Raquel, shifting her body towards the girl.
"It's a big cemetery, I got lost," Jade answered knowing full well she wasn't going to believe a single word. In reality, Jade was late because she didn't want to come. It was nothing personal with Jason, she just didn't want to go to this particular cemetery.
Their turn came to approach the grave, one by one they left a flower in front of the grave until they almost covered his name. Jade shifted them away and placed hers a little bit to the side, leaving the name uncovered. She wondered how many more of these would she have to attend before her own, her gaze shifted through the crowd, any of them could be next. Six feet under, just like that. She walked away from the grave and again to the back of the crowd, just a few more minutes before she could leave...just a couple more minutes.
"It's been a while since you last went there," a voice rang in her head. Nightfall's voice had been getting stronger ever since she took over. "I wonder if someone's taking care of it," she continued.
"I'm leaving," Jade told whoever was near her and started walking away from them. Richard caught a glimpse of her walking away and disappearing further into the cemetery, far away from an exit.
"It should be around here," Nightfall continued just as Jade stopped in front of a grave that was covered by the shadow of a tree. "See, I told you no one was taking care of it," Nightfall's voice rang in her head again.
"What are you doing?" Jade asked out loud, her hand moved around the surface of the grave, cleaning it. She moved the moss away, it had already grown on top of the name.
"I was just curious, it's been years after all," Nightfall answered. "What would Camille think if she saw her tombstone had been forgotten to this extent?"
"I don't think she would mind, you know...being dead and all," Jade answered moving her hand away from the name Camille Brooks. "Why do you care anyway?" she asked, but before she could get an answer she heard footsteps coming up from behind. The girl turned around to see Richard Grayson walking up to her, his hands in the pockets of his pants and black bags under his eyes that matched the whole outfit.
"So this is where she was," he told her. Jade moved her hand away from the grave and got up from the ground.
"Yeah. That night it was just me and some idiot I paid to do it," she remembered. "It was raining though, so he charged extra," the girl said, trying to lighten the mood but failing in the process. "I'm sorry about what happened to the kid," she told him after a few minutes in silence.
"Yeah. He didn't need to be dragged into this, that's what stings the most," he told her, moving over to the other side of the tree and sitting down. "None of us should have been dragged into this," he said, throwing his head back.
"You're probably right. We didn't start this, but we chose to stay," she reminded him while sitting down next to him. "You could have left, I could have left, the kid definitely had a choice. For some reason, we are all still here, and no one is dragging us into it anymore," she said, turning to look at him. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it out of place and loosened his tie before unbuttoning the first button on his shirt. Jade reached out for her coat and pulled out a large flask and handed it to him.
"You're seventeen," he told her. "I'm still sixteen," he kept going, but the girl's hand didn't move.
"You can drink in Germany," she told him and he finally grabbed the flask from her hand and took a big swig.
"Since when do you carry a flask of Vodka with you?" he asked, handing it to her just to watch her drink.
"Today. I knew I was going to come here and it was going to be hard to deal with, so…" she said, raising the flask and toasting to the air, "Vodka," she finished and took another sip.
"Is this how you cope?" he asked.
"Better than yours," she answered. The two of them sat down in silence for a few minutes, just handing the flask to each other until Richard took the last swig. He returned the empty flask to Jade, only for her to drop it and start laughing.
"Please tell me you're not drunk," he asked her, finally turning to look at her. She was holding back her laughter and was failing miserably.
"Sorry, sorry. It's been a while since I drank this much," she said. "Anyway, have you seen your face? You might be just as drunk as I am."
He felt drunk, the most he had drunk were a couple of beers with Wally and Artemis, but at least he wasn't dropping things. He turned to look at her, her cheeks were red and her eyes looked a little lost, but she shook her head and turned away from him. Richard pulled out his phone, at some point he had turned it off so now when he turned it on he was welcomed by a surge of messages asking where he was, but he ignored them all and just checked the time.
"It's 11:00 P.M.," he said out loud.
"Huh. The security in this place sucks then," Jade answered, finally getting up from the ground. She supported herself with the tree trunk and helped Richard up. "You should get going, Babs must be worried," she told him, looking him right in the eyes. Richard grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards him, he placed his hand on her back and the other one on her face.
"We broke up," he told her, before kissing her. Jade didn't pull him away, so he kept kissing her until a flashlight was shone in their direction.
"Who's there!" they heard the guard yelling. Before he could do anything, Jade grabbed his hand and ran towards the fence, they both jumped it and kept running until they reached the main road. The two of them stopped at a red light, completely out of breath until their exhaustion was replaced with laughter. They walked towards a park and sat down on a bench to catch their breath, Jade reached down to take off her heels and placed them on the ground next to her feet.
"I really don't know how Catwoman does it," she said, stretching her legs.
"Well, she's usually not drunk when she's running," he answered. Jade jabbed his side with her elbow and they both chuckled.
"So, what now?" she asked, looking back at him. Richard grabbed her face once more and the two of them ended up kissing again, moving closer to each other with every second. It wasn't until a couple of minutes had passed that something clicked in Jade's mind and she pushed him away. "Wait, this is wrong," she said.
"Yeah, we're both not thinking straight. I'll take you home," he said getting up from the bench and reaching out for her hand. Jade grabbed her shoes and started walking with him, he got a cab and they were silent the whole ride, but they never let go of each other's hand. Once they arrived at her place, he got out of the cab to walk her up to her apartment.
"I have more Vodka inside," Jade told him once her door was open. Richard pushed her into the apartment and closed the door behind him.
New York City - May 27th- 10:17 A.M.-
Jade shifted around her bed, her head throbbing with every move she made. She was rolling over when she felt something else next to her, more like someone else next to her. She sat up on the bed just to immediately regret it when the sharp pain in her head blurred her vision. Once it cleared up, she saw a shirtless Richard Grayson next to her. He was sleeping face down, his broad back all scratched up.
"Oh fuck," she said remembering what had happened. "Why am I like this? Why?" she whispered. The girl moved out of the bed without waking him up and picked up her clothes from the ground and pulled on some clean stuff. Jade threw herself on the couch as flashbacks from the night before started pouring in. While drowning in her distress, she heard the door to her room click and while groaning, she looked up to see Richard Grayson walking out into the living room. He had clearly dressed in a rush, his shirt was out of his pants and the buttons were done all wrong and his tie was loose around his neck. His plan had clearly been to get out as soon as possible but had stopped cold when he saw her on the couch.
"Morning?" he asked, letting out a disappointed sigh.
"This never happened," she said standing up on the couch and pointing at him.
"Agreed, one hundred percent. What never happened?" he asked, going along with her plan. "It was good though," he said remembering how all of his other thoughts had been pushed out of his mind and just replaced with her. Jade recognized that face, that was the same face she used to have when she would look for Lance, a face that just screamed that it was all too much.
"He wants an escape," Nightfall's voice rang in her head. "Just like you did,"
"It was good," she told him, getting down from the couch and walking up to him to redo the buttons on his shirt. While she did that, she looked up at him, his blue eyes just piercing through her. She got on the tip of her toes and started kissing him. Richard pulled her close and lifted her up from the ground and dropped her on the couch.
"Now I feel like I got dressed for nothing," said Richard undoing his pants, to his surprise, Jade let out a small laugh before pulling him down with her.
New York City- 4:32 P.M.-
"Are you planning on staying at my house all day?" Jade asked as she took out some beers from the fridge. She handed one over to Richard who was slumped on the couch.
"I was actually thinking, a couple of days? If you don't mind, of course," he told her. Jade sat down next to him and opened the beer, her legs up on the couch and sitting facing him.
"I don't really. But consider that the only thing you have to wear is that suit and the same pair of underwear," she told him. His hand landed on top of her legs as he handed her the beer so that she would open it for him. "I think there's still some stuff Lance left behind," she said, handing the beer back to him. Surprisingly for her, she didn't feel her chest tighten after saying his name, instead, her mind focused on the hand that was now moving up and down her thigh.
"I'll take a look later," he said. "I do have my Nightwing suit though. It's somewhere on your bedroom floor," he told her, getting closer to her face. Jade took a sip of her beer before giving him a kiss and then going back to the movie that was on. It felt unusually comfortable as if they had been doing that for years.
"A couple of days, then you're going back to your house," she told him. Jade chugged her beer and leaned back on the armrest of the couch.
New York City- June 14th- 9:32 A.M.-
Richard woke up on the same bed he had been sleeping for the last 18 days, he moved his hand around on the left side just to find it empty, like most mornings. He shifted around a little before realizing that he wasn't going back to sleep so he got up from the bed and put on his underwear and a pair of sweatpants. The last time he had walked out naked, he was welcomed by the gawking stare of Ms. Dunford, the next-door neighbor who had come by to drop off some fresh fruits.
"Please tell me there's no one in the living room," he said, yawning as he walked closer to the living room. When he turned the corner, he saw Jade leaning over the counter video chatting with two kids. He ran past the kitchen towards the living room and threw himself on the couch. He tried not to listen to the conversation, but his attention kept gravitating towards her. She was smiling while speaking with the kids, a smile he hadn't seen before...it was relaxing.
He had learned a lot about her in the past days, for instance, it turns out Lance and Skye were not her only friends, a parade of people had come over to visit and he had been forced to hide in the room or leave the house when they came over. She used to babysit the kids that were kidnapped by The Dollmaker along with their mother and she was now helping them financially while their grandfather recovered. She studies when she can and goes to university in the mornings, just a year left before she graduates with an international relations major and a psychology minor. There are still pictures of Lance and Skye all over the apartment because she can bring herself to put them away; and finally, she sleeps on her stomach and doesn't move an inch like a dead person.
"Well, I'll call you guys tomorrow too," she said, putting down her phone after disconnecting the call. "I was just about to make breakfast, do you want eggs or pancakes?" she asked, looking back at Richard. Oh, that's something he forgot. Eggs and pancakes are the only things she can cook.
"I'll have some pancakes," he answered, turning his attention to the T.V. "You're still smiling by the way," he told her.
"They are just very cute, I can't help it," she answered, taking out everything she needed for the pancakes.
"That is a very unexpected side of you," he told her, grabbing the wooden spoon she had thrown at him without looking away from the screen. Richard got up from the couch to return the spoon, he placed it on the counter and leaned on her. When they first met, their height difference was only a couple of inches, but now he was a whole head and a half taller than her. His chin was on top of her head and his hand found its way to her hips. "You know, those are some really nice sweatpants," he said, his hand already inside them.
"Really? Then why are you trying to take them off?" she asked, turning around to face him.
"I think breakfast can wait," he told her, turning off the stove. Jade gave him a smirk and pulled him in for a kiss just as he pulled her up and sat her on top of the counter. He finished pulling off her sweatpants and she wrapped her legs around him, his hand under her shirt and as he got ready to take it off, the doorbell rang. "If we don't make a sound Ms. Dunford won't know we're here," he told her, Richard leaned down and started kissing down her body.
The doorbell rang again, he looked up. Jade was covering her mouth to not make a sound, but her breathing was fast. The doorbell rang again.
"Coming!" she finally said.
"Really?" he asked, jumping up to look at her.
"No you idiot, I'm going to open the door. Get dressed," she whispered and motioned him to go to the bedroom while she got dressed. Jade looked through the peephole in the door and let out a long sigh before opening the door.
"You guys, what are you doing here?" she asked, letting Wally, Barbara, and Raquel into the apartment. Raquel gave her a hug before sitting down on the high chair next to the kitchen island.
"We are looking for Dick. Have you seen him?" Wally asked. "He hasn't picked up his phone since Jason's funeral. Uhm we thought he might have talked to you, or come by?" he asked her.
"Okay, I understand why you two are here, but why are you?" she asked looking back at Raquel.
"I'm your moral support," she answered, taking some cookies from the jar. "And I missed these cookies," Jade gave her a smile and directed her attention back to the other two.
"I haven't heard from him, but I'm sure he's fine, he's a big guy. Can take care of himself," she told them; her finger pointing in the direction of the bedrooms. "I'll let you guys know when I see him though," she told them. Barbara and Wally let out a sigh of relief and nodded.
"Thanks, Jade," said Barbara, "he's never done this before," she told her, her eyes examined the room, the two plates set up, the uncooked pancake batter and Dick's favorite cereal in the pantry. He had been here the whole time.
"I'll walk you guys out," she said, going with them out of the apartment, but not before knocking out the last cookie from Raquel's hand and eating it herself.
"How long?" Wally asked.
"He's been here since the funeral. I thought about telling you, but it really isn't my place to deal with these things," she told them, swallowing the cookie as they walked down the stairs.
"So it's just been the two of you this whole time?" Raquel asked, hitting Jade in the back of the head.
"No, I have friends over all the time. He's been using Lance's room," she answered, kicking Raquel on the shin. After hearing that, the tightness in Barbara's chest eased up a little, but then Jade's hair swung slightly off her shoulder and she saw a purple-red mark on her nape and the tightness increased. They reached the lobby of the apartment building and told Jade to inform them if there was anything new. Wally and Raquel started walking away but Barbara stayed behind.
"Please take care of him. He's at his lowest point right now, and the fact that he went looking for you. It might not be a big deal for you, but it certainly is for him," she said. Jade was a bit taken aback by how upfront she was about it, she let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair.
"I will," she answered. Barbara gave her a faint smile and walked over to Raquel and Wally.
"Wow, she really cares about him… You could learn a few things from her," Nightfall's voice pushed back her thoughts.
"I'm not interested in babying Grayson," she said as she went up the stairs. "He has to deal with this on his own, just like the rest of us," she continued.
"Really? Then kick him out of your apartment and force him to face reality," Nightfall answered.
"I hate you," said Jade just as her watch started vibrating. She looked at it just as she was getting to her apartment.
"What did they say? Did they buy it?" Richard asked as soon as Jade stepped into the apartment, but she just walked past him looking at her watch. He followed her to a room in the back and closed the door after the two of them walked in. A small study room that had been turned into a computer room with a huge screen showing every corner of New York City. Jade opened the closet on the side of the screen to reveal a line of Nightshade suits hanging without batting an eye, she started changing in front of Richard who rushed out of the room to change into his own uniform.
"What happened?" he asked, looking over at the screen. Two small drones in the shape of a black sphere were following two men riding their bikes in the middle of the New York traffic. "What are those?" he asked after noticing that they were transmitting location and video right to Jade's watch.
"They are trackers, weaponized trackers. Nightfall got them a while ago, she set up a protocol in place, they detect something, then they scan it and determine how urgent it is and either deal with it, or they send a signal," she explained. "She's always been the one to think about those types of things, but I guess you noticed after that Arkham mission," she finished and put on her mask.
Nightwing followed Nightshade to the back of the room where she pressed a button on the desk and an elevator opened right in front of them. "I think this is the first time we've teamed up," he said, after stepping into the elevator.
"What are you talking about, we team up all the time," she told him.
"Well I mean, just the two of us on a mission, that has never happened."
The doors of the elevator opened to reveal a storage unit with weapons and three motorcycles parked right in the middle. "These two people just stole from the MET, it's an easy recovery mission," Nightshade explained as she stacked up on the basics.
"Do the other people in your building know about this?" He asked, grabbing one of the helmets and getting on the light blue and yellow bike. He figured that one was Skye's and it didn't feel right to get on Lance's bike at the moment.
"What do you think?" she answered and got on her black bike. The two of them raced down the street until they reached the outskirts of the city. "The tracker is following them, they are coming this way," Nightshade told him, she was looking at the screen coming out of her watch, following the two red dots down the street. The two dots started getting closer to them, so Nightwing started his bike and when the two thieves drove by, he went after them.
The two men noticed him and tried going faster, but Nightwing easily caught up with them. He took out his escrima sticks and as he got closer, he tried electrocuting one of them, but before he could, a third bike came out from the side of the road. The woman pushed Nightwing away from the other men, she pulled out a sword and tried to stab him, but the black drone shot out a laser that hit the woman on the wrist, forcing her to drop the sword.
"Okay, those are really useful," said Nightwing, kicking the woman away from him. He looked around noticing that Nightshade was nowhere to be seen and he wondered if she had really ditched him, but then he heard the sound of another bike coming from his other side. Nightshade was driving full speed, but she wasn't alone, two more bikes were following her, each one of them was swinging swords in the air as she drove ahead. "What the hell happened?" He asked.
"League of Shadows," she simply answered and drove past him. Pulling out a gun, the girl shot one of the drivers in the leg making him swerve off the road. Nightwing threw one of his sticks at the back of another one of the goons electrocuting him and catching the stick before it could hit the ground. "Show off," Nightshade muttered under her breath while going ahead.
She found herself surrounded by two bikes, it had been clear to them by now that it was an ambush. Just a trap to lure Nightshade out, they weren't counting on Nightwing being with her though, which explained the increasing number of assassins that had shown up. "What the fuck do these people want?" Nightshade heard Nightfall's voice in her head. She hit the breaks hoping to turn her bike and crash it into one of them, but when she tried it, nothing happened. "Fuck!" she yelled. One of the assassins got closer to her and using her sword, she tried slashing her leg, but Nightshade created a blue fire barrier that melted the sword. She then generated a small explosion that pushed the two of them away from her and off the road.
"You okay?" Nightwing asked, catching up to her.
"I get the feeling that these people don't know me. I mean, who the hell would try to stab me?" she said looking at the road ahead.
"What? It hurts your self-esteem that there are villains out there that don't know who you are?" asked Robin.
"A little, yeah," she said and started reaching out for her belt to take out a knife. She threw it at the tires of the bike directly behind them causing them to crash, "especially if they are working for the Light."
"So, why are they after you?" Nightwing asked, having come to the same conclusion as Nightshade.
"I don't know, but they certainly got my attention," she said. "Fuckers even cut my breaks," Nightshade answered motioning towards the bike. Nightwing's eyes widened when he heard that, not only because it was dangerous, but because they were approaching a dead end.
"Jump over," he said, scooting towards the front of the bike.
"No way!" She yelled, but then looked ahead to see the cut off path. "Fine," she said, sitting up straight and getting ready to jump off. One of the assassins caught up with them and placed himself in the middle of the two, Nightshade reached for her gun, but just as she was about to shoot, the man was electrocuted and left behind by them. Nightshade took that window of time and jumped from her bike to Nightwing's. She stumbled a little but he grabbed her arm and helped her up.
"We're going on a ride," he said and turned the bike around. That phrase was awfully familiar, but she didn't realize why until he said the next thing, "hold on tight," he said and took a sharp turn back to the city. Those were the first two things she had told him when they first met during Ivy's takeover of New York. It was probably nothing, but a smile still escaped her lips.
"Why are you turning back?" she asked.
"You haven't realized it? They wanted your attention, they wanted to drive you away from your place," he told her. "Think about it, what is in your house that they would want?" Nightshade's mind went back to a number of things, her first thought went to the USB, but she had given that to the Justice League.
"That night on The Bronx, I wasn't out for a stroll," Nightfall's voice cut in the way of her thoughts.
"What are you talking about?" she asked out loud.
"Well, there has to be something they want," Nightwing answered. Nightshade ignored him and went back to listening to Nightfall.
"Think about it, they have the blueprints for a mass destruction ray, but they haven't used it. They have the artifact to amplify someone's skills and they wanted to break Tetch out of prison, what can they do with those?" she continued. "The only reason I could be prepared for that Arkham breakout was thanks to the information I stole from The House. You have the one thing they can use to get to replace Tetch," Nightfall finished.
"Either you go faster or you let me drive," Nightshade told Nightwing who listened to her and accelerated through the city until they reached her apartment. The League of Shadows wasn't following them anymore, which felt like a bad sign.
Once they arrived, Nightshade ran to the back of the apartment to find that the hidden door had been forcefully opened. She ran over to the back while Nightwing followed her, she placed her hand on the biometric pad and when the door malfunctioned, she forced it open.
"What the hell?" Nightwing asked peeking from behind Nightshade at the empty room with only a broken pod in the middle. "What were you keeping here?" he asked.
"Cypher," Nightshade answered.
"What?" He asked again.
"An android Luthor created years ago, it worked for the Light until I captured and disabled it," she explained.
"And why would they want it back now?" he asked.
"For the same reason they wanted Tetch. Cypher is able to mind control people through its tendrils. If they use the artifact to enhance his abilities and connect him to a modified ray, then they could mind control millions of people at the same time," she said. "How could I forget about Cypher?" she wondered, leaving the room.
"Wait, this whole time you knew what they were planning?" Nightwing asked going after her. "When were you going to tell us? When half of us were already being mind-controlled?" he asked. It was this type of thing about Jade that he couldn't pass.
"Nightfall knew, I found out about it a couple of minutes ago if that helps," she answered going through the security footage. Cheshire was the one that broke in with a couple more assassins and went directly for the door, the assassins forced the door open and after some time inside of the room, Cheshire came out with Cypher and the two assassins. That was it, after that the security footage goes dark. "Call the League while I try to trace them," she told Nightwing, but when she didn't hear an answer, she turned around to see Nightwing just staring at her.
"It's been a while Nightshade," his mouth moved, but the voice came out as a robotic mumble. Behind him, Cypher in its dark green suit and its hand extended, a tendril connected to Nightwing's back. "We have a little getting even to do."
"Fuck," said Nightshade just as Nightwing launched himself towards her.
