Next day-Jason
It feels like she has been gone forever, the smell of her in her room is starting to leave. Soon it'll be as if she was never here, which is something I for some reason am simply not okay with. Everything is so confusing to me, so confusing I have put in more hours in the training room than Damian and Dick combined. I just need a way to feel okay again, I need a way to focus on anything except what I have lost for some reason. Though it's been easy to have alone time with everyone ignoring me, avoiding me. Tim seems to be the worse but at least I know why now and it's because of Tim. He sucks at keeping secrets. I know the look on his face when he has one and he has been displaying it hard over the last couple days. Which means he knows something. They all do.
It's not a good idea to take walks at night unless you are looking for trouble, somehow however that seems like a better alternative than sitting in a house with those fuckers and their secrets. So a walk I go, I stop in front of the spot, the blood stained spot looking over it for only a moment before continuing. I don't know where I am walking to and I don't really care. I just walk, I even pass the bar I used to go to during some of my benders. I don't go in that would be completely reversing the years I did with trying to control how much I drink.
I thought I was walking alone, at least until I could feel the same person walking behind me that I did for the last three blocks. I don't know who they are and I haven't even had time to really check as I make a right. Still behind me...I take another right the next corner...they are still following me. Usually by four rights you know for sure, however given that they had been following me since the bar I am sure already. I slow my pace stopping for a moment to pretend to drop something, they don't stop getting closer behind me. I wait until they are a certain distance to me before getting back up and continuing my walk. I slow down again this time pretending to look at my phone, trying to be as casual as I can be. They keep going. Finally they are close enough to me so I grab them shoving them against the brick wall.
Tess.
"Why the fuck are you following me?" I spit her eyes are wide and almost scared but I pretend not to notice.
"I wasn't following you" She replies
"I know you were. You can't get it passed me. So tell me again, why were you following me?" I ask shoving her into the brick wall again she flinches as tries to get out of my hands but I tighten my grip.
"Let go of me" She struggles
"Answer my questions and I will" I reply she sighs with relief when a car rolls by only it stops and I can hear a door open.
"Let her go Jason" a voice sounds, it's enough to give me chills, I know that voice from anywhere. I throw her down onto the floor turning around. Taila stands in casual black jeans and a tight shirt, she wasn't expecting to fight tonight.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask
"Apparently keeping you from making a mistake" She says nodding towards Tess on the ground "Attacking innocent girls won't make you feel better ya know?"
"She's not innocent" I growl
"She isn't what you think she is. Get in, I have somethings we need to talk about" She says, I look around looking for a better option. I don't find one. I walk forward getting into the car. Tess dusts dirt off her palms and keeps walking the same way she was walking before I snagged her.
"I don't know what this is but don't think I am working for you ever again" I say to Taila as she enters the car shutting the door behind her.
"I simply want to help. Offer you some peace of mind" She says I don't believe her, she always has some game going, I just need to figure it out.
"How do you plan on helping me?" I ask snottily
"I know where you girlfriend is" She says as the car drives off, I am pretty sure we are just driving around to drive around while she tells me, but I don't know for sure.
"You know where Raven is? How?" I ask she nods setting her hands in her lap.
"She is with the Titans. Your family knows too, they also know who attacked her" She says, I furrow my brow, I fucking knew it.
"She would never go back to the Titans" I say in disbelief
"No? I don't think she meant to. I think she needed help and didn't know where else to go. You see I only know this because I intercepted it. I have been down to...keep an eye on Damian he is my son after all. I saw his texts." She says handing me a orange folder. I open it and it's printed out screenshots from what looks like Damian's phone.
Screen shot
Damian: Do we tell him? With her at the titans I am sure it's safe too.
Big bird: No, he can only do more damage from here.
Damian: Do we look into the attack further?
Big Bird: Yes. Just don't tell Jason. He's a wrecking ball. We don't want him to fuck it up like he does everything
I look over the screenshot dumbfounded, so it's true. She's at the Titan's and they didn't bother to tell me. Because all I do is fuck things up? No doubt these are Dick's words. He hasn't been fond of me as of late.
"They don't trust you Jason. I don't think they ever have. I don't think they want you to know she's safe. Isn't that all they had to do? Let you know she was safe?" She asks I bite my inner cheek trying not to fold under all of this.
"As much as I agree with it why are you telling me?" I ask
"I'll be honest with you Jason. I wanted you to see there is a side who does trust you. That doesn't think you are a...what was it? Wrecking ball? I think your assets are important, valued, and when it comes to your girlfriend you should be in the loop on her safety" She explains, I don't trust her. Though I can't argue with the logic.
"How do I know I can trust you?" I ask
"You don't. I don't expect you to, though over time maybe. I have more information you might want to here" She says, I think it over, I should hear everything she has to say then work on it from there.
"About what?" I ask
"That girl...I want you to be careful around her. We tried recruiting her last year for a mission after seeing her Meta skills" She says my eyes dart to her
"Meta?" I ask, I knew there was something about her that didn't sit right
"She can make people fall in love with her, make people want her. She uses it to cause minor chaos, or to get into people's lives, people she knows has money. Stay away from her I don't want her using her powers to get close to you" She says, It clicks in my head almost instantly. So she used her powers on me, she's a meta. I knew I wouldn't cheat on Raven without there being something else in play. Something just never seemed right to me. Something else doesn't seem right to me...how come I have to hear all of this through someone who isn't my family, isn't my teammate.
"Can you take me home? I have some questions for my family" I grit she nods
"Don't tell them your info came from me, if Bruce knew I was around Damian he would lock me away" She says I snort
"As if any prison could keep you" I deadpan as the car turns into my neighborhood. Though I do as she says mentally zipping my lips on where I got the information from, it's good information and if she's right. She could be the only person I trust, the only person I can ever trust.
The car stops in front of my house, I get out of the car and don't get a couple inches away before it drives off behind me. I feel a slight anger rising up farther through me, I need to figure out who is really on my side. I walk through the door seeing Tim and Dick sitting in the living room watching TV, I don't know why I do this but I march into the room shutting off the TV. Dick scoffs pointing at the now off TV with fury.
"What the hell did you do that for?" He asks
"When were you going to tell me Raven was with the Titans? That Tess was a Meta? When were you going to tell me" I shout, their faces fall
"How do you know about that?" Dick asks with his pissy tone, it grates my ear and makes my lip twitch.
"How I know doesn't fucking matter. When were you going to tell me? You have literally seen me eat myself up from the inside out about cheating on her and about her getting attacked. Not knowing if she was okay and you couldn't even fucking tell me" I yell Tim flinches as I move my hand a little too fast. I feel the pit rising so I don't doubt that my eyes are probably showing up more green than normal.
"Oh please, Don't blame Tess. You would have fucked up that relationship in some way. It's what you do!" Dick yells
"You should have told me! I have been tearing myself up not knowing if she was okay! You knew she was okay the whole fucking time!" I shout back, all this shouting must have awaken Bruce because, he walks out of his room sleepily staring at the three of us confused.
"We couldn't be sure you wouldn't go to her and ruin this whole thing! She needs space from you. You cheated on her!" Dick yells, his face turning slightly red from his blood pressure being high from anger.
"You could have trusted me!" I yell back Tim flinches again when I move my hand and I don't know if it bothers me or pisses me off.
"Jason we couldn't be sure that you wouldn't have reached out to her. We didn't know how Tess was getting her information and we didn't want to risk it being through you unintentionally. It would have been Raven in more danger than before" Bruce speaks up, his voice has it's normal authority.
"What? What information?" I ask
"Tess knew that Raven was going to be alone when she was, that's why she attacked then. We don't know how she knew, we don't know how she got her information. She could have been getting it from you without you knowing and we didn't want to risk that" Bruce answers, I furrow my brow. Taila didn't say anything about Tess being behind the attack. In fact she only brought up her powers to me...almost as if it was convenient I knew.
"What's wrong? Your informant didn't tell you that part?" Dick asks, my eyes dart to him and glare daggers.
"My informant...seems to be a little more than just that" I say "Which means Raven is in danger. Because she already knew where she was. It wasn't from me"
"We need to know who it is." Bruce says
"I need to see Damian's phone" I say Bruce furrows his brow, the only look of confusement I have ever seen him give off.
Regardless he moves through the manor going to Damian's room, hopefully convincing him to give up his code or just knowing it like I know the Bat would. One of the things that used to drive me crazy is the detective would not turn off when he was a parent. There was no privacy because he knew everything, but when it came time to seeing the emotions right in front of him he never seemed to notice. Bruce walks back handing me the unlocked phone, quickly I move through his texts and Big bird is a contact in there. I look through the messages with everyone staring at me waiting for me to explain. I don't see the messages that she showed me. The only ones close to it are Dick telling Damian where she is and that she's okay. WHich means the screenshots were fake. I hand the phone back to Bruce groaning.
"You aren't going to like this" I say to Bruce as he awaits my explanation.
Present day- Third POV
The table is quiet today, no one says anything as they work through the information Taila had given them. How could she go out of her way to get found out? It could blow this whole operation. If she ever expected Jason to come with her quietly it was over now. She would have to bargain something, the only thing she could think to bargain is Raven, however seeing as Raven is as powerful as she is, she wasn't so sure she could do that. Witch Boy could possibly be of help but she wasn't even really sure if that would do it. All she knew is she planted the seed of doubt in Jason, even if they find her out, he will always think about this when it comes to trust. How they didn't tell him something so important. Especially is the girl never speaks to him again.
Taila leans forward looking over everyone surrounding the table, Tess sits uncomfortably in her chair rubbing her shoulder, Jason had grabbed her harder than she thought he could. She could see the green lighting up in his eyes, something seemed like he was about to break and she was relieved Taila stopped when she did.
"When can I have Zari back?" She speaks up Taila looks to her folding her hand together on the table.
"When I can be sure as soon as you get her back you won't run to help them. Clear your name" Taila replies
"Yeah, you could throw us under the bus. We wouldn't want that now would we?" Reverse Flash speaks up, Cheshire nods in turn the black holes in her mask seem to be looking straight through Tess.
"I don't want to clear my name I just want my girlfriend" Tess says shifting uncomfortable once again, the thought of Zari being scared and alone just makes her stomach do flips she didn't think it could. It's making her feel sick to her stomach.
"At this phase we simply can't take that risk." Taila replies, Witch Boy sneers with delight, he is feeding off the uneasiness of the girl. It's been enjoyable for him to see how worked up she is with her girlfriend being locked away where not even she can knows.
"Then just let me see her" Tess replies Taila shakes her head pulling her hands from the table.
"We had to clean up one of your messes, you do not get rewarded for that" Taila hisses, Tess closes her mouth fighting off the tears that threaten to show her every weakness, even though it already feels like they are exploiting them.
The group falls into a silence as Taila begins working on something on a tablet, shifting through things and typing things out, she projects it into the middle of the table as it pops up like a hologram. Everyone's eyes turn to it, a giant T shaped building in the middle of the ocean.
"This is where the girl is hiding out. This is good, it means she is across the country in Jump while the target is here in Gotham. I plan on sending one of you to Jump, recon only. Send the emergency alert if you see them leave the city." Taila explains, everyone follows along with the little picture show, memorizing the new plan and plotting how they are going to succeed with this plan. If all goes well everyone will have want they want. Taila will have Jason, Witch Boy will defeat Raven without inference, Cheshire will...well no one knows why she joined. Not even she knows why she joined, Tess will have her girlfriend back, and Reverse Flash will have an opening to get to the Flash Family by getting the inside knowledge Taila had promised him.
Everyone get's what they want, but no one does until Taila gets what she wants. She looks over at the hologram of the Titan's tower, everything is riding on the hope that they don't go to Gotham. That Raven stays where she is. She thought she secured that by breaking them up, but it's proven that even Tess's powers can't keep Jason interested in her for too long. Which means the attraction and interest in Tess has or will disappear, especially now that they had to tell him about her powers for Plan C to work.
"Who should be in Jump?" Tess asks trying to push her feelings aside, she knows the quicker this is over with the quicker she gets to be with her girlfriend again.
"Reverse Flash, he has the best chances at not being caught and at getting away if he is. If you get caught there I don't think Raven would hesitate to kill you." Taila answers, Witch Boy chuckles
"The Gem wouldn't kill anyone! Not that she can't!" He answers, his laugh echoes through the room sending uneasy feelings towards everyone else. They aren't sure why he finds this so funny but he does, sending his head back in his hysterical laughing fit. "The Gem is too good! The Key to hell...is too good"
The irony wasn't lost on anyone, however no one found it nearly as funny as the crazed chaos demon.