March 6, 2015
Nightwing had her on recon, and she was doing just fine with that. Lee kept to herself on these missions, and after the first month of running ops like this with Superboy, she went solo. Her current assignment brought her to Vietnam where she was following up on the roots of a human trafficking ring she busted in New Orleans. This was supposed to be an easy one. She would scope out the hideout, report back to Nightwing, and he'd send some of the new recruits to dismantle it.
She slunk through the shadows garbed in a muted version of her gold colored uniform. The stylized makech beetles on her sleeves faded to gray against her black jacket and bodysuit, and her boots crept silently over the deep jungle floor. The traffickers were using an old Viet Cong hideout as their base of operations, and she infiltrated the lower levels. Lee was trained to be Dinah's long-range back up and close combat support. As such, she depended heavily on a multi-functional, golden bo staff that automatically fired tranquilizer darts on command. She managed to make her way into the hideout without needing to use it once.
Then, she heard repeated gunfire. On instinct, she let her staff extend in hand and pressed her back against the wall. There had to be another intruder, and if there was another intruder, the traffickers would be on alert now. She had to leave. There were screams and an assortment of yells in Vietnamese, and then the gunfire ceased. Lee heard footsteps coming in her direction. Her body moved in perfect timing as the knives came upon her, reacting from memory moreso than active decision making. Bug twisted her body. She disengaged the knife caught on the staff and dodged the counter blow from the assailant's other hand.
Her attacker had the upper hand, and she couldn't get a decent shot in. She recognized that every attack was aimed at her vitals. Bug wasn't going to get anywhere like this. The next time her attacker went for the space between her ribs, Bug let herself fall back, bringing her staff forward in a sweep. The assailant leapt back to avoid the strike to her abdomen. Finally, they had enough space between them to assess each other.
"Carajo," Bug hissed, narrowing her eyes behind the mask. "What the hell are you doing here?"
The woman standing across from Lee wore a deep green kimono and a painted mask over her face, but her thick dark hair surrounded her face like a mane. Cheshire slid her mask to the side of her head, revealing her face. "Leaving," the assassin answered pointedly.
Lee had a snappy retort at the ready, but then she saw the kids cowering behind Cheshire in the tunnel. The mission was fucked. "Straight ahead, take the first two lefts and then the third right," Bug repeated the path to the surface from memory. "There's two guards at the entrance and fifteen out front. Go. I'll cover your six." The other woman regarded the heroine with suspicion before nodding once and slipping the mask over her face. She said something to the small crowd in Vietnamese, and they followed her, passing Gold Bug as they continued down the tunnel.
She counted four children under the age of twelve, three adolescents, and two women. Bug checked over her shoulder for any guards, and in the distance she heard footsteps. Hurriedly, she followed the crowd. Guards flooded the tunnels. Lee rushed them. A well-placed blow to the temple with one end of her staff, and that was one down. She swung it around and struck the base of a skull. Two down. Behind the kneecaps, a blowdart from the other end of the staff. Two more. Bug pulled the length of her staff under a man's chin, locked it with her bent knees and shot three men down with non-lethal wounds. Four. The staff fell into her hand when she somersaulted back to her feet. Lee caught up to the escapees.
They made it to the exit. Lee shut the door to the tunnels behind her. Jade took on both of the guards stationed at the door. The assassin's style seemed different. Lee noticed it at first when they fought earlier, but seeing the way Artemis's sister moved now, she knew. Jade meant to kill. That was how she was trained. Bug stunned both of the guards before two more bodies could be added to the trail behind them. The men fell to the ground, and Jade straightened.
"I have plenty of ammo left," Bug informed her, moving to the front of the crowd. "I'll go out first."
"Like hell," the assassin sneered. Lee's grip tightened on her staff. All she wanted to do for months was punch the bitch in her eternally smug face. Lee had planned out all the ways that she was going to beat the absolute shit out of Jade and Roy when she saw them next. None of those were viable now. It wasn't the time or place.
"I'm going first," Lee took her blowdart out from her pack and flipped it in her free hand. They didn't have time to argue it. "Make sure they get out of here."
What ensued was a bloodbath. Lee took out the first two guards in sight with her darts, and Jade led the captives into the clearing. They were completely exposed in the open. Bullets rained, but they weren't professional marksmen like Lee and Jade were. These types of guys were taught to shoot first and aim later. They outnumbered the women easily, but they were outclassed. Lee broke from the group. She'd take down more of them in hand to hand and long-range simultaneously. They drew in reinforcements from the tunnels. She just had to keep a path clear for Cheshire to get the others into the undergrowth.
The last woman ran into the trees, and Lee caught up with Jade at the edge of the jungle. "Let's go," the masked villain ordered abruptly. She took off, and Lee didn't waste much time following after her. They ran for miles and miles, and behind them, an explosion sounded, shaking the ground throughout the foliage covered region. Cheshire stopped running. "They won't be coming after us now."
"Jesus. You left a bomb?" Lee demanded, gesturing behind them in disbelief. She shouldn't have been surprised, but she was making the effort to believe that Roy's girlfriend wasn't unhinged.
"Had to make sure I didn't leave loose ends. You understand." she sounded completely unbothered. "Well, this was fun, kid, but I've gotta run."
Lee should have just let the enigmatic woman disappear into the shadows. The hate festering for Jade Nguyen was a poison that she wasn't able to rid herself of, and she spent what felt like a lifetime wondering what it would be like when they met again. Finally, she stood face to face with the woman who had taken her place. "Where's Red?" Lee's voice sounded impassive, hollow. She wasn't looking for him, just wondering. Not curious, just asking.
"No idea." Lee thought she sounded scornful.
Maybe the whirlwind didn't last for them. That was her first thought. She didn't feel as much satisfaction as she expected to. Then, she thought back to the way Jade carried herself. "Does he know?"
The seasoned assassin kept her voice even, poker faced even with the mask on. "Know what?"
"That you're pregnant."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
Lee threw a punch towards Jade's stomach, and with lightning reflexes, Cheshire caught her wrist. Her eyes burned behind the mask, protective and angry. Bug relaxed and wrenched her hand from Cheshire's grip. She wasn't actually going to land the blow, and if Jade's instinct wasn't heightened, she would have caught the bluff. "Assassins don't get maternity leave?"
"Heroes don't mind their own business?"
"Not when a pregnant lady screws up my whole op," Lee snapped back. She was going to have to report this back to Dick, and she had no idea how that would go. Jade was pregnant. Probably pregnant with Roy's child. Jade was pregnant with Roy's child and running through open fire in Vietnamese human trafficking rings. "What the actual fuckare you doing?"
These were two women whose resentment of each other bordered on hate. Lee saw Jade as the woman who had replaced her because, somehow, there had to be something wrong with her. She didn't know how, but there was a voice in her head constantly telling her that, somehow, Cheshire was superior. She had no idea that Jade envied her for everything else she had. Artemis's admiration, her guardians' present and enduring love, and the support of her entire Team. Despite whatever they felt about the other, they just worked together to get out of that place and managed to set all of those feelings aside. Maybe the moment hadn't ended yet.
"Relax, Bicho. I'm not stupid. I quit. Call it, self-enforced maternity leave."
"So, you're hiding out in Vietnam?" it had to be the most obvious place for her to go. She spoke the language, blended in with the crowd. It was the first place the Shadows would go to look for her. With both of their masks on, there was no way to tell what the other was really thinking. It was a bad idea to work with your ex's baby mama, and it was even worse when his baby mama could try to leave you for dead in the Vietnamese jungles. "Mérida."
"What?"
"My abuelita lives there. Tell her that I sent you, and she'll help. They'll never look for you there."
A heavy moment passed in which Jade weighed her words, and Lee questioned why she'd stick out her neck for the woman. "I'll think about it."
"Good." They fell silent again. Maybe that would have been the moment for Lee to take out the anger she had been feeling these past few months. Except, it wasn't there. The fire wasn't raging despite the fuel standing right there. She felt empty. Defeated. She wanted to go home. So, she took off. It wasn't the victorious exit she dreamt of. It was awkward and embarrassing, but she didn't care. She wanted to meet up at the extraction point and go home.
The Bioship met her on the spot, and she sat through the flight in silence while M'gann piloted. The Martian knew something went wrong, but she could tell that Lee wasn't in the mood to answer any questions. She'd get all her answers at the debriefing. Lee took off her mask with both hands and turned it over a couple times. It was designed with Mayan influences, a testament to her heritage. The stealth tech turned it black, but it usually glittered gold.
Lee kept waiting for the anger and resentment to come back, but it didn't. She didn't even have an answer to why she gave Jade a place to hide. She just felt frustrated with herself. With a strangled cry, she threw her mask onto the floor and buried her face in her hands.
"I can take you home," M'gann's resolve crumbled as she watched her friend coming apart. "Nightwing can wait one night."
Lee had been doing so well lately, but all of them knew how precariously balanced she really was. They tiptoed around it, but as soon as they saw signs that she was starting to drown, they flocked to her, ready to come to her aid. She loved them for it, but there was nothing that they could do to help her with this. Roy promised her the world, and he had given it to Jade. It hurt far more to see it in person that she thought it would.
"No," the woman croaked. She dropped her hands and let them hang from wrists resting on her knees. "Mission isn't over until debriefing."
Wordlessly, M'gann nodded and maintained a steady course to Happy Harbor. She didn't say anything about the strain in Lee's voice. She didn't ask if Lee was okay. No matter how badly she wanted to. Instead, she gave her friend space, even though it felt as if there was already too much of it between Annabelle Lee and the rest of them.
