Hello everyone! I apologize for the wait on this chapter. I just found out I can graduate in December, so I'm trying to finish everything to do so, and it's really tiring. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks to those of you that have followed/favorited this story. It means a lot. And mun3litKnight for reviewing! You rock my world! On a side note, I am looking for a beta writer, so if you're willing, hit me up. As always, please review!
"Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal."
~James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name
The night was unusually clear and quiet- which Jason was thankful for. It would require him to be more cautious and skillful- not that he usually wasn't, but it would keep his mind occupied.
Since he had stabbed Riley, and subsequently yelled at her for being out in public, Jason had been trying to keep his mind busy and his interactions with Riley limited by occupying himself with gathering intelligence and systematically picking off Black Mask's men.
It was cathartic. He channeled all of his rage into his work, and it produced results, even if his former mentor disapproved. This was his way of curing the city of its disease, and rather than having them break out of prison, like they did whenever Batman put them there, he killed them, never giving them a chance to return to reeking havoc on Gotham. That was true justice.
Was Riley supposed to be helping him? Yes, but she was injured and would only slow him down. Besides, he wasn't sure if he could trust her yet. Sure, she had verbally agreed to help him and did take out one of her former partners, but that could be an act. She was a con artist after all. He had studied her long enough to know how dangerous trusting her could be.
Jason grappled across the gap between the building he was on to the roof of warehouse that several of Black Mask's men were patrolling. He flew from one man to the next, as effortlessly as breathing, taking them out within seconds of each other. They never stood a chance, and he almost felt sorry for them- almost.
From there, he entered the ventilation shaft and slid down to the level he needed and crawled through the cramped, muggy tunnels that made him question why villains always chose the run-down warehouses.
Not that he was complaining. Just observing. It brought out the excitement he felt as a kid, first playing make-believe that he was a hero, and then again when he first became Robin. It was a giddiness he had long forgotten and had been unable to access until he went out at night. His childhood and teenage years- the ones he had at least- had been traumatic, but the pride brought on by saving the city- his city- rescued him from a broken mind. It was something he could thank Talia and Ducra for.
As he drew closer to the muffled voices, he paused to listen, brushing off the cobwebs that had collected on his hood and shoulders. "The payment checks out," he could hear one of the lackeys say before another voice spoke.
"Ms. Larson, we have a deal. Now repeat the plan- I won't be held responsible for this should you make a mistake." Black Mask's assistant was running the deal. Jason had to hand it to him, Black Mask was wise enough to lay low for the time being.
"Sell this, track the users, record the results, and then take them out and make it look like an accident," the woman relied, her voice was raspy, but it sounded familiar.
As he hear the sound of heels clacking away, Jason pressed a device that shut out the lights, and he swung to the rafters, pausing momentarily to survey his surrounds and chose a plan of attack.
Shouts erupted from the men below as he watched them scramble around for a moment before jumping into to the fray.
Several of the men shot their guns at nothing in particular, not even coming close to hitting him.
"You all need to work on your aim," he commented as he shot another man in the back. The men in the area shot in the direction his voice came from. The room lit up with brief bursts of light as the men discharged their bullets.
"You'll have to be faster than that." The men looked on in horror as the Red Hood toom them each down with ease. Each snap of the neck and bullet to the chest seemed to drown out everything else in the room and accented each burst of light with a crack and then a thud, until only Mr. Li and Ms. Larson were left.
As he turned to face them, he felt a sharp pain in his leg, which caused him to stumble briefly, but within moments he had Mr. Li disarmed. Jason yanked him up by the collar so that he could look him directly in the eye. "Tell Black Mask I said hello," Jason commented, and with that, he head-butted Mr. Li and let the man fall to the floor, unconscious.
Jason spun towards the woman and aimed the dual pistols at her, only to find her smirking. Why was she smirking? "What is Black Mask planning?"
The woman held up her perfectly manicured hands. "Relax," she cooed, and before he could blink, a bespectacled Riley was standing before him. "I think my way was a little more subtle."
Jason lowered his gun, chuckling. "Yeah, but I had more fun. Now, what are you doing here?" Though he couldn't make out her eyes in the shadows, he was certain she rolled them.
"What you're supposed to be paying me to do. Since you wouldn't give me any direction and won't let me out in public just to have fun, I figured I'd just have to take things into my own hands."
"Good work."
Riley stared at him in disbelief, still waiting to be reprimanded for acting independently. "Wait," she stepped forward so that she was fully immersed in the moonlight. "You're not going to give me some lecture?"
"No, you did what I would've done, and therefore I can't get mad at you for that." Jason was somewhat annoyed that she showed up when he was doing this to forget her momentarily, but at the same time, he was pleased. This was the woman he needed- this was the spirit he had seen.
She was starting to live up to what he suspected. Not a belligerent nuisance, but a competent and willful partner that took initiative. Now, they could truly start working together. Truth was, he had left her alone and unchained to see what she would do; to see if her loyalty to her father was purely monetary. It still didn't mean he trusted her, but it was a promising sign.
Jason noticed her gaze wander down to his leg. "You're hurt," she said, absently. Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she walked closer to him. "Let's get you back."
He allowed her to help him out of the warehouse and to the car he assumed she stole. She left him at the passenger side as she went towards the trunk and opened it, exchanging the duffle bag of the substance Li gave her for a body of the woman she had impersonated. A trail of blood ran down the dead woman's cheek from the wound at her temple and stained Riley's grey blazer.
"I'm going to bring her to the warehouse to avoid any suspicion. My father would've checked up on her if she had disappeared from the scene."
"You're surprisingly decent at that," Jason commented as he took another swig from the bottle of whiskey they picked up on the way back to the warehouse. Riley had pulled out the bullet from where he was shot and was stitching it up while he sat on the kitchen table.
Her jaw tensed slightly as she muttered, "I've had lots of practice." She paused and sat back in the chair, lifting her shirt so he could so her lower abdomen. A faint scar marked the area just above her left hip. "That was from the first time Roman used me as target practice." She let her shirt fall back down as she went to finish stitching him up. "I did a horrible job stitching that one up. It took forever to heal."
"How old were you then?" His voice seemed hesitant.
"I was nine." The snipping of scissors punctuated the end of her sentence. She snatched the bottle out of his hands and took a sip before she began wrapping the area above his knee with a bandage. "I screwed up a delivery and got the client caught by Batman."
Silence fell between the pair, and Riley got up to wash her hands before grabbing the box of day-old pizza out of the refrigerator.
"I had a shitty father, too."
His voice was so quiet that she wasn't sure if he had actually said anything, or if it was the wind making the roof quiver again. "Had?"
Jason paused for a moment to consider which father he was talking about? He shook slightly with pain and anger as he thought about Bruce and how he had abandoned Jason- how he refused to avenge his death. No. Bruce wasn't his father anymore.
"He died a while ago in prison," Jason clarified after taking another drink. Riley sat on the table beside him and offered him a slice. "In all fairness, he didn't know any better. All of his common sense left him when he picked up a bottle."
Riley kept her eyes on the bottle that seemed to tremble slightly. She sighed and took the bottle in her hands, which Jason appreciated even if he didn't acknowledge it. She took another drink and then hugged the bottle to her chest. "What about your mom?"
"She died, too." He left it at that, and she took it as a sign to stop prying into that area of his life.
"My mom died as well. I get how hard it is," she offered and placed a hand on his knee, before laughing and sighing. "Aren't we a bunch of clichés? Getting trashed and sharing things about ourselves." Riley's eyes met his and they both chuckled as she kicked her legs back and forth like a child.
"I was going to say the same thing."
Silence consumed them once more. They alternated drinking from the bottle and finished up the rest of the pizza. They were down to the last eighth of a bottle before Jason broke the silence with another question. "Why have you stuck by your father after everything he's done to you?"
Riley wasn't exactly sure how to answer that. The part of her that was whiskey-soaked told her to tell him the truth, but her rational mind told her not to answer the question. She tossed her head back and threw her hands over her face in an attempt to ground her mind.
Relationships laden with abuse were particularly tricky to explain, but if the brief glimpse into his family told her anything, Jason could understand that rocky terrain. How could you love and stay with someone that caused so much pain? And Riley wanted to love her father. She had convinced herself she loved her father, because he gave her everything. He taught her everything. She was told time and time again that parents love their children, no matter what. They're just not good at showing it all the time.
But then there was a part of her that knew that wasn't an excuse. Abuse was abuse, not a misunderstood love. It was trauma; it was secrecy. It was the flinch at every raised voice or fist. The fear of abandonment after every argument. Yes, she was a strong person, but not because of her father, but because she overcame everything in spite of what he did to her.
Those two warring giants made it impossible for her to rationalize any definite feeling about Roman Sionis. All feelings in between duty and hate scattered like refugees, scrambling on rafts of the subconscious, just beneath the surface of realization.
So, she settled for relying on his past to answer his own question. "The same reason why you still refer to your father as such instead of severing all ties to him, despite all of the awful things he did to your family."
Riley hopped off the table. "I'll analyze the drugs tomorrow to see what we're up against," she slurred and stumbled out of the kitchen, leaving Jason alone with his thoughts. He was all too familiar with the war going on inside her head. He was dealing with the same war. If he wanted her loyalty, he would have to prove to her that Roman Sionis only saw her as a pawn in his game.