A/N Loook..this took me forever to write because I didn't want to be pulling numbers out of nowhere so I did actual math on how fast it would take Reverse Flash to get from Gotham to Jump City and Vice Versa...he can run a mile in 5.3 MILASECONDS! So i did hella math so please appreciate this chapter lmao. (Also the whale reference I recently thought about sooo yeah)
Thursday Morning-Jason
Waking up I can feel the ache in my back from this shitty bed. It's been going on since I got here, it started as a mild little pain and now it feels like I have a softball in my back and someone needs to punch it out of me. I wouldn't mind a fight right now anyway. That has to wait until tonight though, for now I need to make the choice if I am going to fight against my family in the beginning and switch back or if I am going to from the start. There is so much I have to think about, so many things I have to make sure I do right so I don't risk the life of anyone.
I wonder if they are going to bring Damian, I know if given the chance Taila would take him back. She has made it obvious she regrets leaving him with Bruce. That is one of those choices that in this life you can't go back on. Especially now that Damian knows what it is like to be apart of the Bruce family, he knows life isn't supposed to be about follow orders or die. Which is honestly a lot of what Taila's family is about.
So far today, no one seems to suspect a thing, I have only seen Tess and Taila and Witch boy is supposed to come by later for some planning. He really wants to make sure that everything is in place for when they choose to attack. Little do they know how they may not even reach that point. Everything is riding on the hope that they can stop Reverse Flash from coming here to power the base. So that Raven can get Zarinna out of here and they can take everyone by surprise. I wonder if Raven will come back, she has to right? Dickhead can't fight Witch Boy without magic. I feel a little nervous at the possibility of seeing Raven again. I knew on my way home that night that it would be the last day of our relationship but I didn't know how much of an end it would feel. I didn't expect the very next day to be me thinking she was dead.
I still have nightmares about her being dead, I think those are mostly fueled by her not sleeping next to me anymore. Why did no one tell me that sleeping next to an empath would be so addicting. So calming and reassuring that I am safe from whatever mental demons have come to snatch me in my sleep. I hadn't had a nightmare for months back in Aruba, and now...I can't seem to shake them. Only instead of it being about me being brought back to life it's me making that same choice for her.
The opening of my door brings me out of my thoughts, Taila and Tess stand side by side, this worries me. Tess can make me do anything she wants if she convinces me I am in love with her enough, and Taila has other reasons for wanting me to not be able to think clearly. However, I don't show my worry on my face. I just buckle my boots looking up at the two of them with a stoic glare.
"Reverse is coming back today for the energy. He should be here around 5:30, so if for whatever reason the power does go off, I need you on the roof" She says I nod
"Why on the roof? Wouldn't I be better suited on the ground where anyone could come in?" I ask, Taila thinks about this for a moment and then shakes her head
"I need you sniping, not fighting" She says bluntly, which I know what that means. She doesn't want anyone alive if they try to break in, which means she won't be holding back. I just nod shrugging my shoulders.
"Do you have a sniper rifle?" I ask leaning back onto the bed, she nods gesturing for Tess to go and get what I would assume the only Sniper rifle she has here, Taila isn't a gun person more of a can kill you with her bare hands kind of person. Regardless I tap my teeth twice activating the molar mic, I need the team to hear this, and they will.
"I told you I had no intentions of helping you kill my family" I say, she nods but her facial features don't change.
"You don't have to help, You can fire warning shots if you need to but best believe I will be pulling no punches." She warns, I sigh knowing she means it, she wouldn't say this unless it unless she means it. I believe that, she must know that killing any member of my family even if I was really working with her would be the first step to getting herself killed. The family and I wouldn't rest until she is dead and she knows it.
Tess walks back into the room handing me a case which I would assume has the gun in it. Nothing like some heavy guns to get the morning started. I nod to Taila opening the gun case to examine what I am working with, a Barrett M82. It's a good gun I will give her that. The reason why she has it is beneath me. There are many reasons why she would, and all of them I don't want to know about. I can tell everyone would be listening, if not everyone than Tim, he always is.
"Got it, on the roof. Why didn't you give this to me before?" I ask curious on if she knows anything she shouldn't.
"I didn't trust you the last time" She says simply getting up to head outside of the room. I don't believe her for a second, there is something else going on that she isn't telling me about. She knows something is going to happen tonight, the question is what is it? How does she know? Did Tess leak the information? Is she just being overly cautious? Am I just overthinking?
I honestly don't know and that is what makes this so worrisome, if she does know something it could put Raven and my family in danger and if she doesn't know anything, she really expects me to shoot at my family and not stop her from killing then. I don't know which is worse right now. I just need to hope that she doesn't know anything and that the mission tonight is going to be a success. Get Zarrina and Tess out of here, and hopefully Raven can get to Witch Boy before he gets to her.
"I didn't say anything" Tess whispers as she walks back to the door, I furrow my eyebrows at her but mostly in shock. She can't go around talking about this shit. I get off the bed grabbing her into the room and shutting the steel door.
"Are you fucking nuts, You can't go around talking about this shit" I growl as I cover her mouth pinning her against the door. She taps my hand letting me know it's okay for her to speak, I hesitate but I release her mouth stepping away from her.
"I'm sorry I just needed you to know that I didn't say anything to her. She's always like this when he has to come back. I don't think she knows that they know about it though. She said they wouldn't think about it" She whispers, I grumble curse words under my breath raking my fingers through my hair. She could literally get us caught if she is talking about this so freely.
"I don't trust you, I don't trust her. I don't care if you tell me she just told us we are free to go you tricked me before you could do it again" I say
"I didn't want to. I know how you must feel. You didn't get a real choice. You were forced into it and you feel...assaulted" She says I scoff turning to her with a glare
"No one assaults me, I was not assaulted okay? Tricked? Yes, but you did not assault me. I am not just some victim" I spit at her,
"You know I didn't want to do it because you are a man. Only women. So I was going to go after Raven since she is also somewhat into women but...somehow I knew she would have taken it harder than you" She says, I crease my brow in confusion
"She's not into women...and how do you know she would have taken it hard?" I ask she sharply inhales but smiles.
"She is into women, Taila had been planning this way before you and her started dating, originally it was just Witch Boy and her, get you away from your siblings using his magic and use her skills to get her to Witch Boy. She saw a lot of the women she slept with. That's also how I know...about..." She doesn't finish talking but I know what she means, I feel the slight surge of anger rising into my stomach thinking about Slade. I still want to beat him senseless.
"How did I not know my girlfriend was also into women?" I say shaking my head, she grins
"Probably because she knows the first words out of a guys mouth is 'want a threesome', it's not fun to hear it all the time" She replies, I nod knowing damn well I would have said that shit.
"Look just don't go around thinking you assaulted me or some shit. I am angry because I was confused. I am angry because it cost me my relationship." I reply, to be honest I didn't feel as though I didn't have a choice, in fact I think if I fought hard enough against the urges I could have overcome them. I just didn't fight, there is no one blame but myself and I can't pretend that I don't know that.
"5:30 is the deadline, make sure your friends know that he should arrive around then, meaning they need to find a way to get to him way before then" She reminds me, I think she knows they can hear us.
"We got it" I reply
Tess nods stepping back towards the door opening it with a loud creak. She closes the door behind her as she exits, leaving me with my new knowledge. Raven likes women? So if she doesn't get back with me ever I might have to see her in a relationship with a hot woman and not be jealous I am not watching and or in that little...damn.
Present day- Dick
The clock ticks three and I feel the nerves, they said the Flash Family found the trail and apparently it is the same one he uses every time based off of how damaged the ground is. I wonder if he knows he is leaving such a trail. Still the longer I wait the more I worry that something is going to go wrong, Tim said he heard Jason activate his Mic and he heard when he is supposed to arrive. Barry can figure out from there when he is going to leaving and hopefully get him on the way. Luckily the Flash Family lives right in the middle of the two cities.
Tim also says he found out Taila plans on killing anyone who gets in her way which means everyone needs to be twice as careful, I can't handle the thought of something bad happening to anyone I care about. So far the only thing I know for sure is that, as soon as they can Raven and the others will be here.
We decided that Damian isn't going with us, not that we don't want him to but he and Bruce have some work to do. Things they need to look at and we don't want him in the line of fire against his mother anyway. He didn't seem to mind this. He said he would rather hang out with his dad anyway, that could be a jab towards Taila one he knows she will never hear. I don't blame him anyway, sometimes I wish I had the option to sit something out. Not want to go save the world or my friends. It can get exhausting.
Kori rubs my shoulders lightly as I sit in front of the computer in the BatCave, I pause what I am doing to lightly kiss her forearm. I can practically hear her smile.
"You know everything will turn out the okay right?" She says, I smile
"Kori, it's just Okay. No the in front of it." I correct
"It will be okay" She says I nod
"I hope so, I don't want to lose anyone, if Taila and her people are instructed not to pull punches they could really hurt some of us, remember what happened when Slade decided not to pull punches. He almost killed me" I say, she squeezes my shoulders
"I know, I should have done something" She says I shake my head
"We needed the light or we wouldn't have stood a chance. You did more help for us by just letting us see the attacks and target" I assure her. It's true without any of our gear working that night would have been a blood bath. Slade knew how to fight in complete dark without seeing anything. We didn't. We thrive in the dark but that's normally with our masks.
"Well, I think we will be okay now. They don't even know that Jason is really on our side" She says, I nod
"I always can count on your optimism." I say kissing her arm once again
We fall into the comfortable silence that we have been building for years, not to have the need to have something to fill the silence between us. I continue on my work on the computer, memorizing floor plans and going through the plan once more in my head along with added plans if anything goes wrong. I try not to let the worries and doubt creep into my mind, this always happens when something involves people I care about. I think too much about it all. Kori stopped rubbing my shoulders to get into her suit, she loves her suit and I love it on her so I don't really mind it. She hums something to herself as she does this and the small humming makes me feel calmer somehow.
"Okay, everything should be finished" Tim says looking down at a tablet in front of him, I snap up looking around to make sure Kori is covered. She is.
"Everything like what?" I ask
"Well, Cyborg and I have been working on this device. Let's say that Reverse Flash somehow manages to get through the three speedsters we have after him, he turns on the lights, this machine will work as a low grade EMP only it only absorbs energy from the speed force" Tim says, I crease my brows in confusion.
"How do you know it works? How did you do that? We don't have a speedster to try it on" I fire off questions he smirks and shakes his head
"Cyborg is a genius that's how. Apparently speedsters vibrate at a different frequency then everyone else, meaning their power does too. So their electricity is vibrating at the frequency that this things draws out and traps." He says I guess it makes sense, though I would never have thought about it. I guess there is a perk to having someone with prodigy in their DNA and circuits.
"So is this kind of a plan B?" I ask he shrugs
"Plan whatever. We just can't take the chance of him getting in the way. I don't think we can handle any mess ups here, we could say that with Raven on board we could handle the magic dude, but a speedster? Unless we also want to freeze half the room we can't slow him down" He says, I crease my brows again
"Do you realize I have no idea what you are saying?" I ask he chuckles and smiles, which is the first real smile I have seen from him in a long time.
"Speedsters can't handle the cold, it slows them down and hurts like hell." He says, wow I really need to brush up on my speedster knowledge. I could have sworn I heard something like that before but any missions we have taken where it's cold hasn't affected Wally like at all, unless he is just really good at pretending that he isn't in pain.
"I see, well that's good that we have this backup. Is everyone ready to suit up?" I ask he shrugs
"I know that I am and you are, Kori is already dressed it seems like. The only ones we are waiting on I think is Garfield and Raven, Cyborg doesn't need much suiting up" Tim says, I snort at his remark It's true, Cyborg never needed much time getting ready for any fight.
"Well suit up, Raven and the others should be leaving for here soon and I want all of us to be there" I say
Tim nods disappearing into the dark of the cave to get suited up. I know I should as well but I can't stop going over the plans and backup plans and back up for the backup plans. I guess I am only needing so much control over these because I know I can't control anything else out in the field. Like if Jason is going to come home, or if he is going to choose to help Taila escape. I can't control if someone I care about gets hurt unless I do this alone but I can't do it alone.
Alfred walks down into the Batcave looking around at the three of us in here, he offers me a small smile and a wink the same thing he always does before a mission. He says it is his way of saying goodbye if we don't come back. Though I know that goodbye wouldn't be enough for him. Is any goodbye enough for anyone? I feel like I can hear the ticking of the clock in front of me even though there is so clock, there isn't a ticking clock I should say. The digital one on the desk in here tells the time plainly. Cyborg did the math for this, we will know almost instantly if Flash Family doesn't succeed. Because it only takes him .12 seconds to get from here to Gotham. Which means, it's either he is there at 5:30, or it's go time.
Going against Speedsters isn't easy, going up against magic is even harder, it seems like magic is the only world that had no rules, no limits. We can't even measure how much magic power someone would have, I still don't know the full extent to Raven's power. That's when she is in control, without control she has more that she just refuses to tap into...it's like thinking about Whales to me. You see a whale and you know it's big...it's in the water it's huge you look so small compared to it. It's easily taller than a building if it was standing on it's fin. Then seconds later you find out it was just a baby, not even fully grown. It's scary to think about.
I just hope that we can finish this, and no one has to die. I hope I get my brother back, and I don't fall victim to this...magic whale.