Zatanna surveyed the facility Nightwing's tracker signal was emanating from and narrowed her eyes. She couldn't believe Bane's thugs actually had the balls to capture him like this.

From her heightened vantage point, however, she also spotted a bright red laser going straight through the ceiling and leading up to an even taller rooftop across the street. The magician followed it to its source, but she was not at all expecting who she found.

"Jason?!" Catching the man off guard was probably not the best move, because he whipped around in shock and aimed the weapon at her forehead. Zatanna instinctively stepped back and raised her hands. "Mrasid!" The sniper vanished from his arms in a puff of white smoke, causing him to groan.

"Zee, I needed that!" She rolled her eyes.

"You're the one who aimed it at me!"

"You caught me off guard!" The magician chuckled, a teasing smirk curving her lips upwards.

"Now what would Batman say to that?" Red Hood scoffed and waved her off with his hand, pressing a button on the side of his helmet to zoom in his lenses. "What're you even doing here anyways? Last I checked you don't work in Blüdhaven."

"I was in the neighborhood and heard Golden Boy had been nabbed. Decided to do something about it. 'Course, I can't exactly take them out now that you swiped my gun!" She shrugged meekly.

"Sorry." He continued to overlook the scene while she slowly approached him. "Wait, I thought you gave up killing."

"I did. But when someone takes my brother hostage I don't really give a fuck. But, uh, don't tell Dick I said that."

She bit back a chuckle and patted him on the shoulder. Jason was the kind of guy to give his life for his family but never once let them think he cared.

If she absolutely had to choose, she'd probably say that he was her favorite of Dick's brothers. Though, to be fair, it wasn't a very hard choice. Damian didn't exactly give him much competition, and while Tim was an absolute sweetheart he never quite connected with her the same way the second Boy Wonder did.

There were things she liked to do with Jason that she didn't even do with Dick, and that was really saying something. Yeah, he could be a bit of a jackass sometimes, and when Dick was around he tended to hit on her a bit too much, but for some reason they always just clicked with each other. She admired how viciously protective of family he could be…in some ways it reminded her of her own father. In the many years they'd known one another, she came to see him as the little brother she never knew she wanted.

"So, how've you been?"

"Tired. Running around from city to city's exhausting work." She bit her bottom lip. Bruce had offered Jason a home back when he first returned from the dead, but for whatever reason the man never accepted it. She chalked it up to daddy issues.

"You know you could always stay with Dick and me. We'd help you find a place here 'n settle down." He shook his head.

"Thanks…but no thanks."

"You're not mad at him, too, are you?"

"It's not that. It's just...I wanna take a page out of Golden Boy's book, find my own little patch of hell to call home. Maybe even some day make a real difference there like he's done here."

She hummed in understanding, and a comfortable silence thinned the air around them until Jason cleared his throat. "I'm…I-I heard about what happened with Joker. I'm sorry." She bit her inner cheek and nodded.

"Thanks."

"I don't wanna, y'know, start a therapy session or anything, b-but I know what that's like."

"Yeah, I know you do. Probably better than any of the others." She paused and pursed her lips together, wondering if he could help her with her problem. "Do you still have nightmares about it?"

Jason's gaze wavered from the building. Being brought back from the grave had its downsides, but the nightmares were by far the worst.

"Every day." She expected as much.

"How'd you…how'd you learn to manage?"

A dry chuckle escaped his lips. "It's cute that you think I manage. If you figure out something that works, how about you tell me?"

"I told Dick the other day, a-and he helped. I felt better for a bit…but the nightmares didn't stop. Whenever I'm alone I hear his laugh. At night sometimes I see his face. The only time he's really gone is when Dick's around." He scoffed.

"You two really are made for each other. Helpless saps." An unholy snort escaped the spellcaster's nose as she punched Jason's arm.

"Try it sometime, you might like it. Who knows, maybe it'll work for you, too."

"Ok. Find me a hot redhead who can kick my ass."

"Kinky. Might take a while, though."

"I've already been waiting twenty years. What's a few more?" They both locked eyes and burst out laughing, and Jason shook his head. "What a couple of losers."

"Speak for yourself, Todd."

"Trust me, gorgeous. Anyone who's stuck living with Grayson has to be a world-class loser." She smirked. "Speaking of…wanna dent some skulls?"

Zatanna wasn't a very brutal person. In fact, she preferred to steer clear of violence altogether. But she also wasn't the type of person to step on anyone else's toes, so if Jason wanted to knee a thug in the groin then bash his jaw in with his booted heel, she wasn't about to stop him.

From his hanging captivity, Dick took note of his brother plowing through the hordes of thugs without mercy and his girlfriend much more conservatively firing off spells to demobilize, and he wasn't sure whether excitement or worry was the right response.

On the one hand, he was about to be freed.

On the other, these guys were about to have one hell of a hospital bill.

"Gah!" Zatanna's shoulder began to bleed, and Jason practically tackled her behind cover while their attackers recuperated, his eyes widening as he looked over her wound.

He grabbed her shoulder and clenched his fist. "Who did this?"

She bit her bottom lip in pain and winced. "Jerk with an AR. 3:00. Ungh…"

Jason gritted his teeth from under the helmet before leaping out of cover and shooting said thug in the kneecap. He yelped in pain and dropped his gun, but the rage-driven Boy Wonder wasn't through with him yet. He shoved him to the ground and began to lay into his skull viciously, not stopping even when he began to draw blood from his own knuckles. Zatanna used the opportunity to blast the rest of the thugs back.

The brutal vigilante eventually dropped the man's bloody skull to the floor and hurried over to the sorceress, gently grasping her arm to apply an anesthetic and bandage. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah. Just a flesh wound." He narrowed his eyes, but she shrugged it off with a small giggle. "You're even more of a mama bear than him."

As if on cue, Jason shot down the rope holding him upside down, and Dick landed on his head with a thud. "Ow!"

"Serves you right, dumbass."

Zatanna rolled her eyes and helped him off the floor, leaving Jason to scan the area and holster his guns. As soon as he was on his feet she yanked him into a fiery kiss, only breaking off when their third wheel approached them.

"Better now?" He smirked.

"Much." His gaze slowly drifted from the brunette beauty to his eldest brother. "But, uh, what're you doing here?"

"Long story."

Zatanna's fingers traced over the edges of his mask. "Why didn't they unmask you?" Jason crossed his arms.

"Cuz Dickhead had enough forethought to build in security precautions to prevent unwanted unmaskings. Nice move." He smiled.

"Thanks."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, you're still an idiot. Doubly so for getting caught by these schmucks."

"Absolutely."

As quickly as his smile appeared, it vanished. Zatanna high-fived Jason and began to leave the facility, leaving a confused Nightwing to raise his eyebrow and scratch the back of his neck while his saviors marched off together, laughing and conversing without a care in the world.

"Since when were those two so chummy?"