It was freeing, being the Batman.

This was a rather obvious part of why James did it all to begin with, but somehow it never ceased to surprise him. Spending a night floating through the city, cloaked in equal parts anonymity and reputation, was shockingly thrilling. If he were honest, that was probably part of the reason why he hadn't ever revealed himself to his friends. Probably a bigger part of the reason than it should be. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, but letting them in on his little— Well, frankly, enormous,— secret would ruin the illusion that when James was in the suit, he was a different person.

Of course, he'd thrown the illusion out the window the moment he'd decided to speak to Lily Evans. The few times he had to interact with people he knew in the suit before it hadn't been a problem. But for some reason she was able to penetrate the literal and metaphorical armor to make him feel like just James. That in and of itself was a type of thrill, but he recognized it as a dangerous one. If he felt too much like himself he might accidentally give himself away. She was smart enough to figure it out if she really tried. He was sure of it.

If he were honest with himself, he should really just stop seeing her as himself, those interactions were frivolous and silly and not at all crucial to protecting Gotham and the people in it. Her help with the Felix situation could be absolutely vital, and to risk it all for a bit of flirting was completely idiotic. But still he did it.

Tonight he didn't have to feel guilty about speaking to her. He was suited up, the Batman rather than James, and the talk would be business only. That is, if she showed up. She hadn't in almost a week, and James was starting to get a bit worried. She had seemed fine the other day at the hospital, but it's not like she was going to tell him if something had gone wrong.

He picked out his usual stakeout spot, a fire escape on a mostly empty building just above the route she normally took to the club. It was a quiet night. Cold, probably, but he couldn't feel it through the suit. He waited for an hour, almost two, and was just about to call it quits for the night when someone passed the sidewalk under him. From above he couldn't make out any discernible features, there was a hat and a hood, but as soon as they were past his vantage point he saw a loose strand of red hair. Lily was back.

James dropped down beside her, careful to make noise when he did so she would notice his arrival. She had gotten quite good at not jumping in surprise, but there was still a small flinch in her shoulders that was difficult to hide. James couldn't blame her- he'd designed the suit to be unsettling, after all. He had to stop himself from doing a double take at her appearance- mostly at the thick glasses, but the most he looked the more he noticed a shift in her look. Baggier, darker clothes. And the hat. There was no reason to wear a baseball cap in winter unless you were trying to hide something.

"Nice disguise." He said. He meant it a little teasingly, mostly to let her know that he had noticed, but he wasn't sure if it would translate through the voice modulator in the suit. She gave him a strange look, as though she could not quite parse out his tone.

"Well, we can't all afford custom bat suits." She replied, a little bit of heat rising in her cheeks. It really wasn't that bad all things considered: the bagginess of the jacket hid her figure, the hood and the hat hid her distinctive red hair. The glasses changed the shape of her face slightly, and brought out the light freckles that scattered her cheeks. If you looked longer than a few seconds it became clear it was her, but it was enough to give someone pause, and to hide her from a distance.

"It works. I almost missed you." he said. He hoped that hadn't been the intention, but he decided not to voice that part out loud. That was probably a little more James talking than the Bat.

"Glad you didn't," Lily said, and the words sent a ridiculous, disproportionate thrill through James, "'Cause I've got a lot of news for you, and none of it is good."

Moments like this were the dangerous bits, James thought. When he was caught up in the marvel of her, and she had already gotten to work.

"Roof?" James asked, offering his arm, and trying to clear his head of inane thoughts. She accepted, reluctantly, but maybe a little less reluctantly than the time before. They shot upwards, reaching the relative sanctuary of a city rooftop in record time. She immediately started pacing.

"It's really bad." Lily said, before he could even ask, "Like really bad, I mean I guess you probably knew that already, but I think I've figured out how they're doing it, I mean, maybe, maybe I'm just paranoid—"

"Wait, wait, slow down." James said, frowning, although she couldn't see it through the mask. She paused her pacing for a second, looking at him almost like she had forgotten he was there.

"One thing at a time. What did you figure out?"

"How they're disappearing people." she said breathlessly, "It is the drug, I mean we kind of figured that, right? But the thing is, it makes you really tired, like really tired, after you use it. And every time you use it you get more tired, until eventually you pass out on your way home."

"How did you figure that out?" James asked. He wasn't concerned, per say, because she had gotten it done, and he trusted her to be smart enough to be discrete, but the level of detail there was a little concerning.

"I was with one of them— Mary, when it happened." she said, and launched into a fuller explanation of that night's events. How she'd gone to the fights (even though she'd sworn not to, a detail James found interesting but not altogether surprising) and noticed Mary MacDonald. How she'd followed her down the alleyway when Mary had knocked out cold, a few hours after her fight.

She told the story carefully, seeming to have contained some of the nervous energy enough to keep a specific account of what happened. She was definitely downplaying how scared she was, that much was fairly obvious. But he didn't think he was keeping anything else to herself.

"So?" she asked, when she had finally concluded her tale, ending with her dropping Mary off at her apartment and telling her to stop taking Felix.

James considered. Her conclusion was solid. But something about it just felt so simplistic. It couldn't possibly be that easy.

"It makes sense." He said slowly, "The roofie aspect is interesting, I think you're right that that's how they're getting people so easily."

"But?" she asked, sensing it coming.

"But that can't be all it's for. If they just needed to roofie people they would roofie them. Making a whole new drug is overcomplicating things."

"Maybe the strength part is for rigging the fights for betting?" Lily said, "I mean that's the obvious answer, right."

"Maybe. But then why would they take out their rigged fighter with the roofie?"

"I don't know." Lily said glumly, scuffing the sole of her shoe against the ground absentmindedly.

"There's definitely more going on." James said. He hesitated, wondering how much more he should elaborate. He'd been doing some research of his own, and what he knew could help Lily if she was willing to keep helping him. On the other hand, the information was sensitive. If word got around that she knew, she'd be in danger.

"How much more?" Lily asked, frowning. Then she winced, leaned against the small building that housed the stairwell.

"Are you alright?"

Lily winced again, then sunk into a sitting position.

"Fine." She said, though she didn't look it, "My legs... they just get stiff sometimes."

James knew this could not be the entire truth, but she didn't look like she wanted to discuss the topic further. He tucked the information away for later. Maybe he could bring it up to her as himself, somehow.

No. That was a terrible idea. That was the type of thing that was going to tip her off and blow his cover.

He filed the information away anyways.

"Finish what you were saying before." Lily said, clearly impatient to move on from the more obvious topic, "About there being more going on."

"Oh." James said, suddenly returned to the earlier dilemma. It was suddenly much less appealing to disclose. But she deserved to know, on some level. Considering she had foiled Mary's probable kidnapping, she was probably already a target anyways. The thought wasn't comforting.

"You can't tell anyone this. Especially nobody at the club. It could put them in danger." He said.

"Will it put me in danger?" Lily asked. Perceptive as always.

"Probably. But I have a feeling you'd be in it anyways."

She sighed.

"Fair enough. I'll keep my mouth shut."

"The drug is being distributed through regular paths. No new dealers."

This had been easy enough to observe, and he'd gotten one or two of the veteran dealers to trust him over the years. Being a billionaire was never more convenient than when he was doing field work. Consistent bribery went a long way.

"So?" Lily asked.

"So, it's not coming from the usual sources. It only has one source. A new... group."

"Group?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow, "What type of group?"

"I don't really know yet." James admitted.

"Do you know anything about them?" Lily asked skeptically. She didn't seem to be finding this information all that impressive, but she also wasn't in this world the same way he was. She interacted with the people, sure, made friends, patched people up. But he could tell that she had built a very effective wall between herself and the less savory aspects of these people's lives.

"A name, mostly." James said, hesitating again before saying, "They call themselves the Death Eaters."

At this, Lily snorted.

"That's a stupid fucking name." she said, grinning mirthlessly.

"I wouldn't say it to their faces." James said, gravely, "From what I can tell, they're dangerous, and powerful."

Lily seemed to take this with the appropriate amount of weight. She stopped smiling.

"So that's what Sev was talking about." she said, almost to herself. Her frown was so deep it was hard to remember she'd been smiling the second before.

"Sev?" James asked. Lily bit her lip.

"Yeah. My fri— well, he's not my friend anymore. I didn't mention it before because he was useless, but maybe..." she trailed off, lost in thought.

"What didn't you mention?"

"Well." She said, looking a bit embarrassed, "Before I found everything with Mary, I asked someone else I know about it. I thought he might... I don't know what I thought, really. Just that he would know something. And I guess he did, because he told me to drop it, and that the whole thing was dangerous. So he was right, I suppose."

"Who did you ask?" James asked, equal parts excited and suspicious. Excited because this person could potentially be a lead, suspicious because she seemed so intent on avoiding their name.

"Um. Have you ever heard of the Potions Master? Stupid name, I know."

But James was not really even listening to that last bit, because the second she said "Potions Master" his heart had dropped to his stomach and turned to ice.

"You spoke to him?" He asked, trying to not sound frantic, and probably failing miserably.

"Uh, yeah? Lots of people do." Lily said. She looked confused.

"You talked to him about this?"

At this, Lily's face reddened slightly.

"Yeah? I mean he's the drug guy, right?"

It occured to James that Lily probably did not understand the gravity of what she was saying. The fucking Potions Master. And she had been friends with him? But if she wasn't anymore then surely that meant she knew what he had done... but if she had known why would she be so cavalier about it all? And if he was involved with whatever was going on with Felix, they were all in a lot more trouble than he'd previously anticipated.

"I feel like I'm missing something." Lily said, filling the heavy silence. James struggled for a second to find the simplest way to dilute his concern.

"If he's involved in this... that's not good." James said. Lily looked uncomfortable.

"He might not be. He's tapped into that stuff, he could've just heard about it." She said, but James could tell even she didn't really believe her own words.

"Lily." he said, "I'm not here to tell you what to do. But you shouldn't talk to him again. I'm surprised you got out of the first conversation unscathed."

Lily was quiet for a minute. James couldn't read her expression.

"He did something really bad, didn't he?" she said finally. She sounded resigned.

"Yes." James said. He could tell she wasn't searching for details. If she wanted them, she could ask.

"I figured." she said. She rested her head on her folded knees, looking dejected,

"I knew he wasn't all good, but I just figured... I don't know. That it evened out somehow. But he fucked up with me, and I always suspected there was something more. So I guess now I know."

James wondered if Lily was like this with everyone she knew. Content with half-truths and cherry-picked details about themselves, never going deep enough to wade through the uncomfortable realities of people's lives. It was certainly true for both sides of himself. It made him wonder how much of her he really knew, how much of herself she had genuinely let him see. If she only let people in half-way, how much of herself did she let out?

"Just stay away from him. Especially now that he might be involved in the Felix business." James said finally. It was a bit of lame response, but he wasn't sure exactly what else to say. She nodded discordantly. Her mind was clearly elsewhere.

"You should lay low on this side of the city too."

James briefly considered whether she would stop going to the club if he asked, and immediately decided the answer would be a resounding and offended no.

"Don't walk alone, if you can help it." He said instead. She gave him a quizzical look.

"How are you supposed to sneak up on me if I'm not by myself?" She said. She seemed to sense their meeting was drawing to a close, because she stood up, leaning against the stairwell.

It was probably a joke, but James had been waiting for the question regardless. He pulled a small device out of his toolkit and handed it to her.

"A pager?" she said, looking skeptical.

"Sort of. If I need you, it'll buzz and give the time and location where we can meet."

"And I can't send you anything?" she said, turning the device over in her hands.

"That button on the front," James said, pointing, and she flipped it the right way round, revealing a small red button, "If you press it, it'll activate a tracking device and send me a signal. So only press it if it's a real emergency."

Lily gave him a suspicious look.

"Are you sure it's not tracking me all the time?"

"Positive." James said. The tracker was practical, but he had still debated putting it in at all. It felt gross, but if they ever needed to use it, they'd both be glad it was there.

"It's just, I don't know who you are, you know?" Lily said, staring intently at the emergency button, "I mean, there's got to be times when you're not doing this, and you're just a person. It's weird."

James didn't quite know how to respond to that.

"I guess you're pretty aware of that, though." Lily said, glancing up at him, finally.

"More than you know." James said.

James would wonder later how he could learn more about Lily in one conversation as the Bat than in three conversations as himself. The more he thought about it, the more he returned to those last few lines of conversation. How it was the first time that it had truly occurred to her that there was someone behind the mask.