The smell hit Jason before anything else and he woke from his fitful sleep with a groan he partially muffled with his pillow. It was bad enough she disturbed him when he was awake, but when he'd finally gotten some sleep? It was almost enough to make him reconsider his silence just to insult her.

He would have tried going back to sleep, but the footsteps that followed the strong herbal smell were both lighter and firmer than Blondie's, accompanied by others that were nowhere near heavy enough to be the regular Arkham guards.

"Jason this childish ploy of yours does not amuse me nearly as much as it seems to you, now sit up and face me properly." The lights flickered on, not the dim ones they used for nighttime visits, but a full on fluorescent glare.

'Oh fuck no.' Jason did sit up, but brought the pillow with him to shield his eyes from the bright lighting.

There was a ceramic clinking on the small desk and the herbal smell intensified while he heard liquid sloshing into cups.

"Leave us." She ordered and the other footsteps retreated, the heavy door sliding shut behind them.

"You sure you're okay being locked in a room with the ax murderer?" He grumbled, peeking over his pillow with as threatening a gaze as he was capable of right then.

"To my knowledge your skill with an ax is rudimentary at best."Talia's lips curled in distaste as she looked around at the sparse cell, before turning on him. Her eyes scanned him and he felt oddly self-conscious at the inspection.

"Dunno, I think I could do pretty good job with one." He pressed his head against his pillow, to stave off the dizziness that came with sitting up too fast. "Please be a dream." He muttered.

The pillow was tugged out of his hands and set down at the foot of his bed, leaving him unshielded from her sharp green eyes.

"I assure if it was it would be a nightmare." She looked down on him with a frown that fit perfectly with her next words. "You disappoint me Jason; I wouldn't have expected you to allow this…" She snarled. "Indignity."

"It's an asylum, Talia." He shot back at her. "so I'm sorry if it's not up to your standards, could you tell me what the fuck you're doing here and…"

The sound of the slap reverberated off the walls loud enough that he was sure the assassins down the wall had heard it, and Jason instinctively brought his hand up to his cheek over the bright red print he knew she'd left behind.

"Disrespectful boy." She took one of the steaming china cups off the desk and after a look at the stool made it clear she wouldn't be stooping low enough to use it, brought the tea to her lips. "You will not behave as if I am one of your father's children, do you understand?"

He nodded dumbly, and after a pointed look from her, picked up the other cup and took a small sip of the scalding liquid. It was honey sweetened and spiced generously, melting away some of the Arkham chill in his bones.

"You came to yell at me for shooting your demonic princeling?" Jason asked, focusing on the warmth of the cup in his hands.

"Among other things." She eyed him with a calculation frown, not like she could really judge him to much over that when she'd sent assassins to off the little brat herself at one point. With a sigh she picked up a sliver tray of little savory pastries and held it out to him. "This place has not been good to you."

"It's not exactly a five star hotel." Jason took one of the offered snacks and after one bite had to reign himself in from shoveling the rest in his mouth, that wouldn't have gone over well no matter how hungry he was. "I'm not supposed to be comfortable here."

"Yet here you are." She left the tray balanced on his knees and brushed an imaginary strand of hair from her face. "I was sure you were merely biding your time, but it has been almost a year."

"I had a few plans." Jason took another pastry. "But most of them involved being declared sane, and I don't really see the point in leaving anyway."

"I see." If she weren't so damn sophisticated he was sure Talia would have been rolling her eyes. "As usual you would rather waste away than face your mistakes." She finished off her tea and poured another cup.

"I'm too tired to have this conversation." He refused to flinch at the withering glare she sent him, returning it with a blank stare that belied the newly rekindled rage in his chest. Like it was so damned easy to break out of Arkham with no contacts and no funds to buy them with.

Talia sighed again, this time a long-suffering exhale of air that, along with her twitching hands showed just how much he was trying her patience. "I suppose all of the blame cannot be placed on you." She set her tea cup down. "I should have known you were too unstable to be allowed such freedom."

"Allowed such freedom?" Jason growled, the rushing in his ears growing marginally louder. "I didn't need your permission to do anything."

"Exactly." She said. "And there lies the problem. Let me make myself clear this once Jason." She leaned in close enough that he could practically feel her reading his mind. "If you do not get yourself out of this place within three months I will be forced to intervene, and you will no longer be allowed to do just as you please."

She straightened up and hit a button at her wrist, summoning her escorts as she gently brushed s hand along the back of his head before moving to the door.

"Finish those pastries Jason, you've lost far too much weight." She turned to half look over her shoulder at him while the tea set was collected. "And it wouldn't kill you to shave before we meet again. Farwell."

The door shut and the lights flickered out, leaving him alone in the quiet cell with the tray on his legs the only sign anyone would have had that she'd been there at all. Jason did eat the last of the pastries and shoved there tray under his bed.

He was staring at the blinking light again when it her words to him finally sank in.

"Shit." He whispered, running a hand through his too-long hair. How was he supposed to come up with a plan in three months?

((line break))

Ninjas everywhere.

Stephanie had been running from location to location for hours trying to help fight off the swarms of badly dressed assassins who's only purpose seemed to be ruining her night as thoroughly as they could.

'Batgirl there's a bomb at the Crown Point community center; Red Robin needs backup and you're the closest.'

She delivered a particularly brutal kick at what she'd been hoping was her last assassin of the night.

"If I see Ra's I'm gonna do something really, really bad to him." Stephanie groused as she hopped on her bike and scared the crap out of a would be mugger passing by when she tore out of the alley.

'As if you would prove a challenge for my grandfather.'

"Get off my comm you gremlin. And for your information, I bet I could at least key his car before he notices me." She said. "Probably."

'Actually I just heard from an informant that Ra's is in Istanbul, so there's got to be someone else pulling the strings on this one.' Tim said dryly, the sound of typing audible in the background.

'You think they're after Lil D again?' Dick breathed heavily, and Stephanie was reminded that he'd been doing most of the heavy lifting that night.

'We should be so lucky.' Tim scoffed.

'Please keep the comm chatter to a minimum.' Barbara cut in just as Damian was starting his rant. 'It's hard enough to coordinate without you distracting me.'

Stephanie arrived at the community center just as the ninjas were clearing out. On the one hand: great, she didn't need to fight them, but she had to question the wisdom of running towards whatever they were leaving in such a hurry.

She'd only taken a few steps into the building when she was lifted and thrown bodily back out the door by a speeding blurry Tim.

"Get down!" He yelled, tossing her behind some hedges and landing half on top of her, shielding them both with his cape.

A second later a loud BOOM shattered windows, scattering broken windows all over the surrounding park. That was that. Stephanie sighed, pushing Tim off her, only the BOOM hadn't sounded quite right.

Tim's face was stony as he stood, looking at the scene with the same clinical detachment as always, though there was that curling of his lips that made WE board members die a little inside whenever he directed it their way.

Apart from the windows the center was still standing, only it was coated with the same noxious smelling substance that covered Tim from head to toe. The gooey orange stuff had poured out of the windows and the open door, dribbling down the steps and walls to sink into patchy grass.

'Red Robin, report.' Bruce demanded after the few moments of silence that followed.

Tim brought up a hand to click on his comm, but failed to find his voice as a glob off goo dropped off a tree and onto his head.

Without a word Stephanie got out her phone and snapped a picture. Tim's glare could have turned oceans to steam.

He brushed the stuff away from his mouth and stalked off to answer Batman, leaving Stephanie alone in the park.

'Good work Batgirl, you can head home.' Oracles voice was barely audible over Stephanie's uncontrollable laughter.

Those three minutes had almost made up for how much the rest of the night had sucked. Another glob of orange dropped from the same tree, this time splattering across her shoes. Yeah almost.

She would've asked if there were any other ninja's around for her to wreak her righteous vengeance on, but then Damian started practically screaming over the comms about his mother. Stephanie was back on her bike and speeding away before she even had time to think about it.

Wayne family drama was something she wanted no part of.

((line break))

Barely a day after Talia had left Jason was pulled from his not-sleep again, that time by the comparatively less welcome hands of the Arkham security guards, cuffed and almost dragged out of his cell.

It had taken only one scathing look at the cowardly guards for them to back off and let him walk towards the interrogation room on his own.

The room appeared empty when he slouched down in the uncomfortable plastic chair and tried not to yawn. "Enough with the fucking dramatics old man, you know I don't care."

Still the lights dimmed and flickered before Batman appeared, emerging from the darkness like the specter he wanted the criminal element to believe he was.

A stack of pictures were dropped on the table, but Jason didn't look at them.

"I'm too locked up to know anything and like hell I'd tell you if I did." After their last conversation Jason didn't have anything else to say to the man who kept him locked in that hell-hole.

"You had a visitor last night, what did she tell you?" Bruce growled.

"Geez, stop doing that voice before you get throat cancer." Jason rolled his eyes and leaned his head back to study the cracks in the ceiling.

"This is serious; she spent a lot of resources keeping us too busy to track her down before it was too late, why?" He demanded leaning as close to the younger man as Talia had the previous night.

Jason was just considering using the same tactic he did on Blondie when he was pulled out of his chair and lifted an inch off his feet by the front of his jumper.

"No games Hood, what are you planning?"

"Oh you know, murder, world domination, the usual." Jason shrugged as casually as he could suspended in the air. He didn't break out of Bruce's hold, maybe he wasn't as heavy as he'd been a few months ago, but he was still curios to see how the other man could hold him up for.

An idea struck him and he looked Bruce dead in the eye, letting a cruel smirk cross his lips. "She did mention the brat, suggested I go for a headshot next time."

With something that was half a growl and half rage filled scream Batman slammed Jason into the wall, his arms wrapped around the younger man's throat. "You'll leave Robin out of this." He hissed.

"Or what?" Jason had to force the words out through rough hold Batman had on his throat. "I'm not scared of you Bruce, there's literally nothing more you can do to me."

Something flashed across Bruce's face, but it was gone before Jason could define. He was dropped to the ground while Batman turned away.

Jason rubbed his sore neck and got up, moving back to the chair and feigned indifference for the half a minute Batman was quiet. Whatever had happened the previous night had to have shaken him up. Not bad enough that Jason thought one of his soldiers had been hurt though.

"Can I go back to bed now." His voice sounded more tired than he would have liked, but it did the trick.

Bruce turned back to him, one of his hands reaching up before he caught the movement. The lights flickered again and Jason was alone again.

"Theatrics." Jason muttered with a sigh as the guards came to cart him back to his cell. The look on Bruce's face stuck in his mind the whole walk back though, and Jason spent the rest of the night wondering just what the hell Talia had done to the old man.