Disclaimer: I don't own any of DC characters or stories.

It's been a while since Talia had felt the tight grip of fear for someone she cared about. Despite constant reminder to herself that he had slightly enhanced healing, she hadn't been able to settle down quite as much as she hoped until he was finally declared stable and had been brought to rest in the room. Still, besides an extremely rushed trip to LexCorp Tower to retrieve her laptop (unfortunately, she could not afford to leave it for hours with an upcoming deadline, and neither was she keen on spending hours worrying without distractions), she hadn't been able to bring herself leave until she could be sure that he was going to be safe (so she could berate him for the carelessness).

She needed him to wake up soon. The Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, was less than helpful. He had been, Talia learnt, an art student suddenly thrown into the midst of superhero-ing via a magical green ring. He's had less years of vigilante experience than most Robins, she couldn't help but note disapprovingly. Less than all Robins, in fact, if she considered Damian's training before he became Robin. Not ideal, considering Jason's insistence on making dangerous enemies, but at least the power ring made up for it. Hopefully. Maybe she could still convince Jason to reconsider the "relationship".

He had been exhausted and Talia suspected he might have just returned from space. She barely held a short conversation with him before he was basically knocked out and curled up on a chair in seconds. The courtesy trained into her considered offering the bed (as Jason hadn't been out of operations at that point), but the bed had been prepared for Jason and the idea of Kyle in Jason's bed was completely unacceptable to her at the moment, even if Jason wasn't even there.

Watching him twitch in the small plastic chair with his knees pulled up to his chest, his expression of mild discomfort and the occasional shudder that ran through him nearly made her feel bad for him. Like this, he almost looked vulnerable, but she knew his ring likely protected him, asleep or otherwise. It mattered not. The world was always a dangerous place, resources were limited, and Talia protected her own people. Kyle was not one of hers and his comforts were not her concerns.

She thought back to his response when she had asked (again) about their "relationship". "I'm… uh, I'm his boyfriend," he had finally mumbled quietly, his cheeks dark. "I think? I mean we didn't label it per se, or at least I don't think we did that. We just… um, kiss? And stuff? It's not… it's not like super super established, I mean I'm in space a lot, and he's busy a lot, but once when I was pretty down, he read me one of his favourites… um, I mean, I think it's sort of serious? Probably?" As she had predicted, without his mask on, his guard had fallen a significant amount and her willingness to communicate earlier had probably played a role with his forthcoming attitude. Talia was even almost able to find his fumbling endearing, if he wasn't talking about dating Jason.

Apparently, they hadn't hit off well when they had their first multi-verse travelling mission, and hadn't kept in contact either. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, in their view at least), they had met when they accidentally bought neighbouring seats at a small obscure Broadway show. Turns out, the theatre was managed by Kyle's neighbour of all people, and for a backstage pass, Jason had decided to tolerate Kyle and one thing led to the other (which explained absolutely nothing, but she couldn't question him more for by then, he was yawning more than he was talking and his eyes were barely open). She wondered if the butler Pennyworth knew about this "relationship" and whether he would approve. Hopefully not. It would not hurt to have more powerful allies on her side.

Unexpectedly, the phone in her left pocket began to vibrate. The phone for urgent League-related calls. She frowned, glancing up at the boy. She didn't think he was good enough to be faking his sleep, but she also didn't want to take that risk or risk him waking up in the middle of her call.

It took a lot of effort not to sigh as she slipped out of the room and called for another private room. Hopefully, this would be quick, she thought as she picked it up. She wouldn't want to miss either Kyle or Jason waking up. She needed to know what had been dangerous enough to nearly cost Jason's life, if not for Kyle's opportune timing.

"Mistress Talia," the voice came in immediately, vaguely distressed. She wrinkled her nose slightly at the sound, trying to place who he was. "Natalia Knight has disappeared!"

"What?!" Of all times to disappear, now? "When?" she demanded.

"I don't know, she has never done this before! Her calendar has scheduled quite a few observations to be made today, and she never misses them!"

"Have you begun your search?"

"Yes! We're questioning every staff near the area and will be moving outwards to investigate. Someone would have seen her. We will find her," he promised. They had better. She was too valuable and dangerous to be lost.

"Good. Report back the moment there is any change. Don't fail." She hung up. Agitation coursed through her. The timing was so uncanny she couldn't help but wonder, was it related? But how could she have known? Natalia had barely been paying attention to any current affairs and whatever transpired here certainly hadn't been newsworthy yet. Quickly checking her phone, she found no online traces. Yet she couldn't help but wonder, did she know, somehow?

Natalia had never expressed an interest in leaving the area, never even tried to escape or negotiate their deal. For the entire time Talia had known her and every time she had visited, Natalia had been at peace with her stars. All she ever requested was comfort, exquisite dresses, and new books to be delivered to her area. She never even bothered to collect them herself, usually having one of the servants Talia had left her to travel the distance to the airport to retrieve them.

Pangong Tso was, after all, one of the most beautiful places Earth had to offer. With the snow-capped mountain sprawled across the expense of the landscape, the serenity from the remote location, it brought about a feeling of peace unparalleled almost anywhere else in the world. No matter how much you clung to the feeling and thought you remembered exactly what that tranquillity felt like, you would always be wrong. Every time Talia returned, she was blown away by how at peace she felt without fail. Talia could almost understand why Natalia didn't feel the need to leave.

And yet she had. For some inexplicable reason, she had decided not just to leave, but to slip Talia's guards to do so, despite never having expressed any inclination towards disobedience. She had accepted Talia's conditions and rules easily enough, with barely a word of protest. She didn't even question Talia's intention, although Talia suspected that she had an inkling for why Talia had approached her with the proposition. Occasional deliveries and the avoidance of all topics relating to Gotham was all she asked and was ridiculously easy to fulfil.

She should have known. That should have tipped her off at least, for nothing was ever that easy. She had underestimated exactly how much cunning the siren still held, and how much she clearly managed to slip beneath the few servants and guards Talia placed. Somehow, she had managed to obtain some form of transport secretly and sneaked herself out of the site. They didn't even know for certain if she had left the valley. Although neither Natalia Knight nor Natasha Nox had taken a flight out of the valley or passed the state border, given that she had managed to sneak out, Talia would no longer put it past her to have a separate forged identity Talia did not know of ready to go.

No matter. Either way, the moment she surfaced, Talia would get a hold of her. She was not losing such an important and powerful potential weapon to anybody. Not when she had spent years of resources providing for her in case she ever had need of her. She hoped Jason would have awoken by then.

Everything felt like a blur to Kyle. The evacuation from the planet in Sector 2039 had been a devastating affair. Years of slow degradation to their atmosphere through exploitation by the rich and powerful had destroyed most of the safety features on the planet, and in view of an incoming quake with almost no protections, an immediate evacuation should have been called aeons ago.

Unfortunately, the leaders and elites of the planet had decided to built a luxury cruise ship, incapable of hosting even 10% of the planet's population, and had abandoned the planet entirely without warning while on a supposed "exploratory" mission. By all accounts the resources spent on the luxury ship should have been more than enough to spare every citizen of a horrible end, but it was hardly shocking anymore to learn that the leaders had abandoned their people.

They didn't even have the courtesy to inform anyone of a potential destruction, and it was purely coincidence that a Lantern flew across the planet as the destruction had just begun. With at least two planetary wars happening half a universe away, there hadn't been many Lanterns to spare and the results had been… unpleasant, to say the least. Crushed limbs, bloodied parts, and terrified minds. Sights he wished he would never see again, despite how impossible that was.

The worst had been the few who had refused to even consider evacuation. "It is our home," one of them had told him. "We will stay and save it from the fate we have caused it. Impossible does not exist and we will reverse this." One of the other Lanterns (he couldn't remember who now, with how almost everything unimportant was a blur under his exhaustion in that moment) had told him to leave it, and that the people had made their choice, but Kyle couldn't just leave it. He had begged them to go with him. "I'll bring you back. I promise, I swear. We'll just have to leave for now, let the quake and the storms that you know will follow pass and you can find a way to reverse it later. Please!" Yet they did not care, they would not listen, and not one of them had budged. Kyle wondered, distantly, if they were still alive.

Coming back to Earth was supposed to be a haven, it was supposed to be better, and he was supposed to be on vacation. He was merely taking a mindless flight, following the prettiest path he saw, crossing rivers and mountains and deserts, cataloguing whatever sights of beauty he could find in an attempt to calm the frenzy he couldn't shake. When he stumbled across Jason, it had only been half working, and whatever composure he had collected shattered in an instant.

After Talia's call, most of what happened had been even more of a blur, his strongest impression being of blood, terror, and hands that would not stop shaking. He had mostly followed her command as they worked together quietly, except for a sharp moment when she snapped at him to "Focus!" because his hands would not stop shaking as he held up the construct stretcher holding Jason together with her. He had used the ring in the end, the constructs being steadier than his hands, and somehow his mind had concentrated enough to rush them to the hospital in a nick of time.

He was pretty sure whatever Talia did to get Jason into the operating table was probably illegal on some level, but at the moment, he couldn't care less. His mind had been wild with worry and he had even considered calling Simon. Simon wasn't on Earth though, being one of the Lanterns managing the planetary wars. He doubted anything less than potentially Earth-destroying aliens could bring him back, if that could even bring him back.

Thankfully, Jason had been safe and shifted to the room by the time he had awoken from his restless sleep and he finally felt like he could breathe easier. He couldn't bring himself to disturb Jason from his rest, but he still looked so pale and Kyle couldn't get the image of Jason, pale and unconscious with a knife impaled upon his chest, out of his mind. His fingers brushed the edges of Jason's, uncertain, as he gazed upon his face. Please, he hoped, wake up soon. The slight up-and-down movement in Jason's chest indicating his breaths and the quiet beeping of the heart rate monitor felt like the only thing anchoring his mind from going into another frenzied mess.

Waiting was like slowly suffocating, and briefly Kyle wondered if he should fly back to New York to get his sketchpad or laptop (he thinks he might have a deadline soon), but the thought of flying as far as New York seemed impossible. Just flying to LexCorp had felt like it took too much of him already.

Before he could ponder it more, Talia stepped into the room again with her laptop case clasped in her hands as she returned from her lunch break. Her head tilted slightly as she considered him, clearly not expecting him to have been awake already. Briefly, he wondered how long he was asleep.

"Awake then? Very good, I have questions," Talia began immediately, settling the laptop down on the table and lowering herself gracefully into a chair she placed in across the bed from him, in a manner almost like interrogation. He nearly groaned aloud. More questioning? He was so not ready for this. "Who attacked him?"

Kyle blinked. He thought she had wanted to continue the line of questioning about their "relationship" (their relationship was not fictional and in quotes, but every time she said it, he could feel her put it in quotes). "I don't… they flew away!"

"I am aware, you have expressed that multiple times. But what did they look like?"

Okay, okay, Kyle could do this. He was an artist, he had an eye out for things, he could totally describe the attacker, right? He had only seen him for a brief moment when Kyle had sent him flying with his ring though, and the second he turned away, Kyle's attention had been wholly focused on Jason Jason Jason. "They… they were covered in… in black. Head-to-toe. About 5 foot 10 I would say, not particularly bulky but well-built."

"Facial features?" Talia seemed unsatisfied.

"Covered, and besides, I barely saw them for more than 30 seconds," he explained.

For a moment, her eyes almost seemed to glower and Kyle had to fight the urge not to lean back in his chair. "Any fighting style you recognised? Or movement?"

"Fighting style? Uhhh… like karate?"

She rolled her eyes and bit her lips as though to avoid saying something rude. "You should have paid more attention to the assailant. But never mind. Do you know if any of his enemies are targeting him recently?"

Kyle frowned. Paid more attention to the enemy? Jason had been possibly fatally injured! The moment they stopped being a threat, they had become completely irrelevant to Kyle. Between saving Jason and capturing them, it was never even a question. "I just came back to Earth? Besides, we don't talk that much about our enemies or whatever and…"

"... Do you know any?"

Kyle looked up at her exasperated. "I don't know. Joker? Black Mask? Rasta-guy?"

Talia narrowed her eyes in confusion, "Rasta-guy?"

Kyle shrugged.

Her eyes twitched with displeasure. "I suppose this isn't as 'sort of serious' as I thought it was," she muttered under her breath, soft enough that it was obvious she wasn't speaking to him, but audible enough for him to hear.

He bristled. "Who are you to judge that?" he almost snarled, his tone sharper than he intended.

She tensed. For a brief moment, Kyle was sure she had been about to attack him, her face and posture somehow seeming darker and sharper than they were before. Her eyes looked as though they were nearly glowing again, and in that instant, he had a sudden urge to eat his words and apologise profusely. While he could not bring himself to quite regret them, he was exhausted and it was definitely rash to challenge her while she was paying for Jason's current treatment and could probably kick him out. Honestly, he wasn't sure why she hadn't yet for how much disdain she seemed to have for him, but he dare not complain. He didn't know what he would do if he had to leave before he could just see Jason rouse and move again at least.

When she did not respond, he sighed, slumping back on to the chair by the bed and bringing his hand to clutch Jason's. Given the stupor Jason was in, it was far more for his own comfort than Jason, but he'd take what he can. If he had been paying attention, he might have noted Talia's expression becoming even more pinched.

Kyle's bristled tone of his last statement (before the conversation had been rapidly dropped) irked something within Talia. Who was she to judge? She had nursed him back to health as a traumatised child, had brought him out of his catatonic state, provided him training that made him the weapon he was today. At least a third of the tools in his arsenal were a result of the training she sent him for. But she had introduced herself as a mere mentor, she supposed, not knowing how else to define the complicated relationship they held, and an ex-mentor wouldn't really be in a place to judge his relationship status and choices.

Whatever it was, this awkward unpleasant mess was definitely one of the worst possible ways to have met Jason's "partner", regardless of how glad she was that Kyle had called her. Finding out about an incident this serious after would be much less preferable. If only Jason could wake up and…

The locked door swung open. Assuming it was a nurse or doctor coming for a check-up (as they were the ones who were given access to the room), Talia stood, only to find the last person she'd expected, the very person she had been searching for, standing right at the doorway.

A/N: Whew, this is still far longer than I expected, and unexpectedly STILL mostly Kyle and Talia introspecting and interacting lol, but it will move along to more drama soon (probably), and Natalia is finally here! I hope neither of them comes off too mean or something, they're just mostly both terribly tired and in a horrible mood mostly (that never helps with anything).