Hope everyone's staying safe during these difficult times and keeping themselves occupied. I definitely have a few endings for this story, the hardest part is deciding which one. My mind says angst but my heart says absolution.

Edit: changed a few words to reflect rewritten storyline.


Alias eyed one jeep in particular as the signature she felt inside was a warm one and shot off the side of the building, frost dusting out in a shockwave. Landing on the convoy her free hand pressed against the door and, with the door completely shrouded in violet glass, ripped it from its hinges to reveal the Syndicate troopers buried inside. Her eyes widened: Syndicate? The trooper closest to her didn't give her the time to contemplate as he stabbed his blade straight through her arm and she cried out, her anger booting his helmet and yanking out his blade to relay the attack straight into his head.

She kindly introduced herself to her attackers by drop kicking inside, sending the one she stabbed through his helmet and the trooper beside him sprawling out the other end; she was definitely getting stronger if she could shove two grown men out the back of the jeep. It felt nice. She dodged a grab from the trooper in the passenger seat and summoned a violet spike on the airbag, impaling the man with the base of her foot whilst reaching in front of the driver and suddenly pulling back. A thin wire had materialised in her hands and was pulled taut on the driver's throat. "Max," she grunted through the strain, placing her other foot on the driver's backrest as she deprived the Syndicate trooper of air. "Syndicate's getting smarter."

"Emitting the same signature as Breaker. Colour me impressed."

"Colour me not." Alias felt the driver fall limp in his seat and released her hold on the wire, his body lulling forward against the steering wheel and his foot heavy on the accelerator. Quickly glancing up she climbed out and on top of the vehicle, noticing the leading convoy speeding up and the one in front of her purposefully slowing down. "Jason, secure whatever vehicle you're attacking. Max, keep Rex away from here."

"You want me to face Rex? You're joking."

"Ain't nothing new," Jason quipped back under the sound of struggling and gunfire.

"You're the only one who can. He's already in my head and only you can bring me back. I'm trusting you."

Max sighed in her ear, "Well, when you put it like that…I'll do what I can but I'm not promising anything." Alias ducked under the fire of bullets from the jeep behind her and watched as Jason welcomed himself to the roof of the vehicle, with the Meta waving at the driver before pointing at the sky, signalling the driver to look up as well. Just as she waved her other hand and froze the driver's hands to the steering wheel, Alias spun on her toes and leapt forward knowing of her own vehicle speeding up uncontrollably. The lead convoy took a sharp right and she followed chase, recovering once she hit the concrete with a crushing, metal impact slamming behind her and bringing the violet whispers to her hands again.

Alias.

She stumbled but her speed didn't falter as the ice boosted her into an upwards arc, materialising swords into her open grasp and stabbing them into the roof of the lead. With their new passenger on board, the vehicle swerved side to side in an attempt to shake off the Meta Mercenary. "Alias," Jason called for her. "Found our Breaker, they got him underground. Guess where."

She blinked, "Founder's Mall."

"Holy shit. Alias, the bomb. When we first met, I thought it was a ruse. Holy shit! Breaker was the bomb." Alias spaced out for a moment, the thought of her close friend being used as bait to reel her in unconsciously breathing in the fiery scar across her face. It was instant: she blurred metres in front of the incoming armoured vehicle, ice surging like waves along her arms and with a push every padded body in the vehicle inhaled once and died on the spot, the cold crushing their insides to frozen flesh and blood. She lifted her foot to casually stop the vehicle in its tracks and peered over it, witnessing Jason cover-roll out of his marked vehicle, now battered and on fire as it swerved to the pavement and crashed into parked cars.

Alias.

"Get out of my head, Rex," she whispered, closing her eyes and finding the Meta standing before her in the darkness. Something was amiss. This aura was cold, unfit for someone who smiled through everything. His mouth was covered by a mask and she tilted her head at the weird accessory. "You're on his side now?"

I do what I must if it means I can survive.

"Then get out of my head."

I'm sorry.

"No. No, you're not sorry. Rex is the one that's sorry. And you," she chuckled a few times. "You are not Rex." Her eyes shot open and she found herself on her knees with tears in her eyes as her wrists were tightly held by Jason's. What...what happened. He had already taken his helmet off in an attempt to reach her and he smiled thankfully when she looked in his eyes. "I found him. Rex, I, I found him. Sinclair's―"

"I know," he nodded softly. "I'm guessing Arcadius wasn't too happy, he almost tried to kill me."

"What? I―"

"Lady and gent, we do not have time to conversate," Max interrupted them once again, using the earpiece although he was seated in the driver's seat of the dark vehicle a mere metre away. "There's no more convoy to take care of but we've got a lead. Next stop: Founder's."

"Don't you mean converse?"

"Converse, conversate, just get in please." Alias was helped up by Jason and was kept by his side even as they walked a few steps to the back door, even as she slid into the backseat his arm was over her shoulders that prompted her to lean against him. It was weird Jason showing this much affection during combat but she wasn't complaining. Even here, he smelled really good.

Inside the armoured vehicle they slowly advanced across the bridge that welcomed Founder's Island with cold, inviting arms, the streets void of bodies and the road disorderly with wrecked vehicles placed almost at random. Max, who whistled lowly at the abandoned street, glanced in the rear view mirror to catch sight of Alias and Jason in the backseat and began to move again. It was after her emotional talk that she felt something strange, something pulling her towards this part of Gotham City and it wasn't until Max stumbled into the kitchen after her confession that Alias realised this was the end game. The rest of the lieutenants were still out there but she didn't care; she knew cutting the head would mean the rest of the body would fall victim to its fate. Whether it wanted to or not. Now that she was here, what she felt was surrounding her. Rex was suffocating her. As much as she wanted to succumb to the feeling it meant losing to Sinclair, again.

Losing Jason.

"What are you thinking about?" Jason asked as he shuffled in his place, catching a small glimpse of pink hair before returning his sight to the interior of his helmet. "I want to know what's going on in that head of yours, Alias."

She sighed, "I was thinking back to the first time we met, I was a mercenary only known as Alias and you as the Arkham Knight using his darkest memories to create a legend out of man. If I had known all this time we would still be together, maybe I should have done a better job at keeping you here. You never told me, in Metropolis, why you left. I want to know."

Max held his breath at Alias trying to ease her way into Jason's heart, even stole a quick look in the rear view mirror to see Red Hood furrow his brows ever so slightly. He huffed out a silent chuckle, "You can't let it go, can you?"

"But I stayed behind, waiting for you to come back. Despite searching the databases, your last known location, you dropped off the map. I don't care where you went, how you got there, what you did, I just want to know why."

"When you carve a lie so deep into your soul, it becomes the truth to you." Alias turned her head when he said that, noticing the remorseful look on his face. There was one part of her who loved relishing in Jason's emotions, but the other hated it: Jason was stronger, stronger than her, and that look reminded her that he was just a kid when he died. "I didn't ask to be brought back to life. Everything hurt, everything burned, it felt as if the reason for my re-existence was brought on by my death in the first place. Before I became the Arkham Knight, there were times when I didn't want to be here, times that I thought maybe it was better just not existing. I left...I left because I was ashamed of myself."

"For not killing Bruce or for leaving us behind?"

"...Alias―"

"If I was sent to kill you, I would've done it already. You want to know why I didn't?" She reached up and placed a hand where his heart thumped calmly, leaning back so that she could see all of Jason, "Because inside this frozen body and trained muscles is a human heart. If I swore to kill you, Jason, if I had promised myself that the mark was final, I would have done it. But because I was so easily entertained, far more entertained than I have been in my life, I became entranced by you. You hid away underneath a digital facade and a voice not your own and I still stayed. Despite your orders, you shouted, you threatened, you fought, you saved me. You left me. Because we promised."

Jason paused for a long moment, "To think a promise would keep you close to me."

Alias slid her hand up to cup his cheek with a warm smile on her face, "To think a promise would keep you alive."

"Okay Romeo and Juliet, could you two switch off your sap tap and focus? We're getting close and all I'm hearing is promise this and, oh my god I'm here because―"

"You sound jealous, Max," Alias cocked a brow as she snuggled into Jason's warmth with the latter accepting the embrace. "You never get jealous."

"Then that means Jason must be important to you," he replied with a small smirk and her body softened in response. "Whatever promise you two made, I expect it to last after we finish this. Seeing you smile like that, it's...comforting, to say the least." She took Max's words to heart, hugging Jason a little tighter as the vehicle continued its venture but suddenly she moved out of the embrace. Just now, her senses spiked and she glanced outside their little bubble.

"Max," she called to the Meta, gently tapping his bionic shoulder. "Stop the car."

"Why, what's―"

"Stop. The car." Her order resulted in an immediate reaction and their bodies lurched forward as the vehicle came to an abrupt halt in a junction, Jason peering around as Alias took the chance to climb out of the car and circle towards the bonnet. Her eyes narrowed as the mist rose against her face, her senses sent on overdrive as a cloak of heat enveloped the streets, all at similar temperatures but several at slightly higher. And not stationary.

"What's wrong?" Max jogged beside her and noticed her fiery mist, his head cocking towards a quiet road. "Guys―"

"I got...8 targets. Moving targets. More on the rooftops, jumping, armed...I can't…"

"...question: did somebody order tanks?" Alias stared up at Max with wide eyes before the low rumbling of heavy engines began to stretch closer and closer to their position, two cobra tanks rolling into their view and rolling fast. She frowned; the only tank she knew that could move as fast as that was...the Cloudburst tank. "Alias, tell them we don't need the tanks please."

"The car! Now!" Jason had just leisurely fastened his helmet onto his head and opened the door when he witnessed the Meta Mercenary bend her knees slightly and straighten just as fast, the motion raising a violet ice barrier. Before he could ask what was happening the air cracked and Alias was thrown onto the windshield, the barrier still holding but the force enough to knock her off her feet. That's when the vigilante moved, slamming the door behind him and rushing over to help her out of the crater, his vision falling on the two tanks that have parked mere metres away from them. "I have a plan," she groaned as she was set on her feet. "A very reckless one. It involves this car, you and these tanks."

Jason smiled, "I like this new you, Alias. Not afraid to get a little dirty."

"I stopped playing nice when I realised Sinclair still existed."

He glanced at the car, "Where's Max?"

"He already figured it out…in the car, I'll explain on comms."

"What about you?"

"You're my decoy." She double tapped his crimson cheek before letting the world crawl to a standstill, stole another look at Red Hood and blasted into the air. Landing heavily behind the cobra tanks she stayed in her squat and placed her hands on the floor, emulating the temperature of the concrete and tuning her body to the exact signature. Only then did reality move once again, Red Hood jogging over to the driver's side and climbing in, pushing out the shattered windshield and readying the reverse. "When I drop the barrier―"

"I reverse. Got it."

"Yes you do." The mist faded in unison with the barricade dissipating into violet fragments and the armoured vehicle burned out for a second before reversing, the cobra tanks following suit and chasing their primary target. Just as they did that, Alias stood up and summoned the cold to her hands and staggered forward as the cold vanished. She clutched her he side of her head, the haze sparking to life and humming. Loud. No, it can't be. Her head shot up, "Jason, he's here! Get down!"

And you actually thought you would win? I'm sorry to ruin the fun, but you're in my house now.

Her body sank against the sheer pressure, her willpower not strong enough to overcome gravity pulling her to the ground and unable to warn Jason of Rex's presence but a pair of hands were already on her. She couldn't retaliate as she was gently set down and their cloudy figure knelt down in front of her, her own cloudy eyes resting on their leathery back and a gunshot echoed out. "I can't save him, Alias. Rex is already here. He knows I can only save one on you. He'll only let me go with just one of you, and I'm already here."

No, don't save me, don't…

Another round fired, this time the rumbling underneath her body stopped altogether. The Cobra tanks. "We have seconds at best, it doesn't matter which one he takes you'll both end up together!" They looked over their shoulder, Max's amber eyes piercing through the fog in Alias's mind and she blinked. "'And I'm already here."

Yes. Alias's blood ran cold. She recognised this voice. I'm already here.

And so are you.