Hey guys! Sorry this one took a while to get out. I've been in DC all week for my birthday and haven't had much time to write. Thank you to everyone that has favorited and/or followed this story. It makes me insanely happy to see. And a huge shout out again to yay and mun3litKnight for reviewing! You guys get a big hug from me!
In response to yay: yes, she does, but it comes at a cost. And as far as working with Jason, you'll just have to see ;)
Hope you all like this chapter!
"Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford, and you are not that young anymore."
~James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
Riley couldn't help but roll her eyes as the target for the night continued to chat her up, talking about how much money he was raking in and how he was moving up in the Black Mask's inner circle. Right, and that's why you don't recognize me. She tugged at the bottom of her red dress in an attempt to cover more of her legs. Leave it to a man to pick out the shortest dress she thought angrily.
She had tried to convince the Red Hood that she worked best in something she felt comfortable in, but he insisted she wear the strapless dress he had picked out. Riley recognized it was probably a power play, but it was still frustrating. She didn't like being bait, and she really didn't like the idea of having to wear a skin-tight dress around someone like their target that had a history of sexual assault.
Regardless of her current discomfort, she leaned in closer to the man that smelled like alcohol and prodded him for the information she needed. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to see it with my own eyes." She smirked and took a sip of her drink. "It's not that I don't believe you, it's just that plenty of people lie about things like that to impress a woman like me."
She turned her body slightly away from the man and glanced around the bar pretending to lose interest in the conversation. She could feel her temporary companion panic beside her as he fidgeted with his hands.
The house music blaring, and the entire bar was filled with cigar smoke. This would be the type of members of Black Mask's gang would like. It reminded Riley of the soda joints of the 1920s with its checkered floors, jukebox, and low-hanging lights hanging over oversized booths.
"Wrap it up. You're losing your window," the voice in her ear prodded. They had to get the information and dispose of him before the members of Black Mask's gang showed up to the bar.
One thing she had picked up on within the week she had been working with him was that the Red Hood was extremely impatient when he wasn't the only person working on his objective. He had major over-control issues- not that Riley was one to talk, but now she was on the receiving end.
"Well, it was nice talking with you," Riley began as she finished off her drink. "Thanks for the drink-"
"I can show you our most recent shipment," the man said as he reached out to catch her hand to keep her from leaving. "It's not too far from here."
She smiled and bashfully looked down at the ground before meeting his gaze. "Well, if it's not too much trouble." This was too easy, but then again, younger guys were always so eager to prove themselves to the world. They were still naïve enough to believe the gang they were running with was impervious to attacks.
They both left the bar and headed down a long alleyway to a small warehouse. Riley was surprised at its size. She had heard her father talking about a large shipment coming in, so she had expected the warehouse to be relatively large.
The man lead her inside with a smile on his face, proud of the fact he had actually been able to show her that he was involved in the Black Mask's activities. Riley returned the smile, and walked towards one of the crates. "What's in it?" she asked innocently.
"A new type of drug he's planning on selling. Stuff's supposedly super potent. You can provide the same kind of high for less," the man answered as he walked over to her and threw an arm around her shoulders. "Now, how about we get out of here and find someplace more comfortable?"
It took all of Riley's willpower to return the smile. "Sure."
They walked back to the club and stopped right by the guy's motorcycle, where he offered her a helmet. Right as she reached out for the helmet, a gun went off behind her, hitting the guy in the kneecaps. The bystanders outside of the club scattered as Riley pulled him into the alleyway, where the Red Hood was waiting, leaning against the brick wall with his arms crossed.
"Took you long enough," she muttered as she threw the guy at the Red Hood's feet.
The guy stared up at her in disbelief. "You- you're working with this freak?" he cried out.
She scoffed. "Right, you're one to talk."
The Red Hood tossed her one of the guns, and she looked down at it, trying to compose her thoughts and quiet her anxiety. She knew this man's track record, and he certainly deserved it with how many kids he'd sold to and subsequently assaulted. It was just strange to be holding a gun to someone she would've aligned with a few days prior.
She knew if she wanted to gain the Red Hood's trust, she would have to do it without question. Riley removed the safety and pulled the trigger, shooting the guy in the head.
"See, it's not so bad," the Red Hood commented as she knelt down beside the man and took the keys and his wallet out of his pocket.
"You're not the one that had to spend an hour with him in some ridiculous dress." Riley stood up and placed one hand on her hip while the other hand held up the keys to the guy's motorcycle. "So Red, want to give me a ride back?"
He took the keys from her and mentioned, "You can call me Jason."
She smiled and followed him to the motorcycle. Riley couldn't help but feel like that was a sign of approval. "What are we going to do about that shipment?" she asked as she climbed on the bike behind him.
"We wait and find out more. We're still not entirely sure what it does."
"Batman, you might want to check this out," Oracle said over the communicator as Batman down the street that led towards Wayne Manor. On the screen to the left was security camera footage from a bank across the street from a bar. Oracle zoomed in on the alleyway where the Red Hood and some female stood. Batman watched as the Red Hood tossed his gun at the girl, who then proceeded to shoot the man in the alleyway.
"The man she just shot was working for Black Mask-"
"And who is she exactly, and what is she doing with Jason?" He pulled into the Batcave and watched the rest of the footage that showed the Red Hood and the unknown woman get on a motorcycle and flee the scene.
"I'm not sure, but I'm currently looking into it."
The oxygen flooded back into her chest as Riley gasped for air. Pain radiated throughout her entire body, and she remained still on the floor, staring up at the cracked cement ceiling of the warehouse.
"Ow…" she groaned, as Jason appeared standing above her, offering out a hand to help her up.
"You're leaving yourself vulnerable. You still need to decrease the area you leave open when you go on offense," he advised, still waiting on her to take his hand and get back to work.
Riley remained glaring at the hand rather than accepting it.
"Up," he commanded, but she still refused to move.
"Come on, we've been at this for three hours now. My bruises have bruises. Just give me five min-" A swift kick to the side interrupted her plea and knocked out the breath she had managed to gather.
"We're not done until I say we're done. Do you think any of those psychos are going to give you a break?" Jason asked as he picked her up and flung her across the room.
Riley landed with a thud. "God dammit," she muttered to herself as she rolled onto her stomach and surveyed the room for anything she could use to her advantage. She knew she would have to gain the upper hand on him at least once before he'd let her quit. That's how it had been the past week they had been training together.
He had broken the bat she had found at the corner of the room, parried her knife out of her hand and into his, leaving her defenseless except for what he had taught her and what she had learned from working under the Black Mask.
Beside her was a crate with a crowbar lying beside it. Riley crawled over to pick it up, only to have a bullet narrowly miss her hand and hit the crowbar, causing it to fly out of her hands.
She spotted a lose floorboard right in front of her that they had somehow missed during their sessions. If she timed it correctly, she could use that to her advantage.
Ignoring the immense pain in her body, Riley stood up by the edge of the floorboard, waiting for him to get close enough to initiate her plan.
Jason stalked over to her with a fire in his eyes and dilated pupils, reminding Riley of a rabid dog. It was a look she had seen in her father's eyes many times as he lost control of his anger.
There was an unstableness about Jason that she had picked up on over the course of the week she was at the warehouse that was unlike anything she had seen before- worse than the Black Mask's even-, but she had been too afraid to push to see if her suspicions were correct. Now, however, she was certain of it.
Adrenalin pumped through her veins as Riley realized if she didn't get this right, there would be hell to pay. Just as he reached the spot she needed him in, she stomped on the floorboard, causing the other end to jut upwards, hitting him in the face.
His hands flew up to his bloodied face, and Riley used this moment of distraction to attack. She charged at him and tried to side kick him in the stomach, only to have Jason grab a hold of her ankle and twist her to the ground.
Riley felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder as he drove his knife through her shoulder and into the ground. She screamed in pain, but the scream was cut off as he immediately wrapped his hands around her throat.
"Jason!" she croaked, trying to get him to snap out of it. His eyes didn't seem to register anything. They were far off and glistening with fear and rage. "It's Riley. We had a deal, remember?"
His grip became tighter, and her vision was beginning to blur. She needed to act fast. Riley's body felt as though she was being pulled in all different directions, and a searing heat coursed through her veins.
"Please," she mouthed, and then he was strangling a body that was identical to his.
Jason staggered back as he returned to reality. One moment, he was fighting with the Joker. The next, he was strangling his duplicate, who was now coughing and gasping for breath as blood began to pool around him.
Moments later, the duplicate transformed back into Riley. As reality sunk back in, he leapt forward towards her, crouched down next to her and pulled out a wad of gauze.
"This is going to hurt," he warned her, but she didn't seem to hear. Her eyes were shut and tears streamed down her face as her chest quickly rose up and down. Jason pressed a hand to Riley's right shoulder as he yanked out the knife. With the same knife, he cut off her shirt, and then sat her upright and applied pressure to the wound with the bandage.
He noticed multiple scars along her torso and back and wondered whether or not those were all from the Black Mask. For a brief moment, Jason could sympathize. Training and working with crazed lunatics that weren't afraid to use brute force was something he was all too familiar with. And in that moment, he wasn't sure how different he was from some of his mentors from the League of Assassins.
"We need to get this stitched up. Can you stand?" Again, he got no reply, so he picked her up, carried her into his bathroom, and sat her on the countertop.
Jason couldn't bear to look Riley in the eye as he applied pressure to the area to help slow down the bleeding. He had lost control in front of her and almost killed her. He hadn't experienced a flashback that jarring for a while- at least not while he was awake. Nightmares were one thing, but the shame that came with losing touch with reality while conscious was difficult to carry.
Riley winced as he dabbed the area around the wound with a damp cloth before beginning to stitch up the open area. She wasn't entirely sure what had happened, and that terrified her. Here was this man that was trying to kill her one moment and then trying to help her the next. It was something she had never truly experienced. Usually, the Black Mask left her to fend for herself after one of his episodes, and right now, she felt she preferred that situation to the current one. At least there was clarity on what to expect and the boundaries of the relationship.
"You want to talk about what happened?" she asked quietly, watching him closely, afraid of whether or not he'd lose his temper again. She saw him furrow his brow and shake his head.
"There's nothing to talk about," he said, curtly. There was no way he'd tell her he struggled with flashbacks- or even why he struggled with them. They were so disorienting, even when they had just been nightmares, that he questioned his sanity. "Now, quit squirming. You're making this more difficult than it has to be."
"You almost killed me," she stated bluntly, only to receive a more forceful stab with the needle as Jason continued stitching her up.
"'Almost' being the key word."
"Well, I'd like for that to not happen again," Riley stated and sighed. She could feel her temper rising to the surface, but tried to suppress it. "So, since we're partners, I'd like to know what happened."
Jason stopped what he was doing and glared up at her. "Do you want to do this yourself?" Riley shook her head and remained silent as he finished the last few stitches.
The pair remained silent as he wrapped a bandage around her shoulder, but as he turned to leave, he heard Riley say, "I know you didn't mean to do it."
That was the truth. As she was processing everything that happened, she recalled the fear in his eyes when he realized what had happened. The speed with which he began helping her was something unfamiliar. She had never experienced that sense of urgency from another person before.
He paused for a moment, contemplating whether or not he should say anything, and then left the room without a word.