Nicky interrupted their banters by asking, "What do you want to do with him?"
The smile faded from Jessie's lips as her gaze turned to her former friend. Then she nodded at the door next to Nicky's. Robin took his time to inspect the artwork etched into the wood surface. A picture of Galen and Nicky was depicted in the front. All around them were various weapons, but the largest and most detailed was a staff. Gabriel's weapon of choice, he remembered. Like Robin's own door, there were words written like a border around the picture, but these he couldn't read because they were shifting constantly. The image of Galen standing side by side to Nicky shifted suddenly. Instead, it depicted Isaac standing over Nicky's body with a bloody knife in his hand.
"I want to ensure he no longer has a foot hold in my mind, and can never enter it again."
Gabriel raised his head at this. A mocking smile spread across his face.
"You aren't strong enough to destroy our connection, Jessie."
Jessie stared at Gabriel for a long time and Robin wondered briefly if she was mourning the loss of a friendship, even if he had been a little worm. Her expression hardened yet she smiled sweetly.
"You are right. I do not have the strength to destroy our connection alone."
Gabriel smiled triumphantly until a sly smile spread across Jessie's face and Nicky chuckled evilly. It was the smile Robin remembered from sparing with Jessie, when he thought he had won then suddenly found himself pinned to the mat.
"But wait, I'm not alone, am I?"
Now Gabriel finally looked at Robin. There was a deep almost seething hatred in his eyes making him look insane. Nicky cleared the small space between her and Gabriel before Robin could even think to stop her. She struck him across the face with a enough force for his head to snap back. Before either Jessie or Robin could protest the other girl's actions, she pushed a sword into both Jessie and Robin's hands.
"I think you'll need those to destroy the door."
Robin hefted the sword and felt Sam's memories of it flood him. He swung the weapon deftly in his hands. The weapon, a spirit weapon hummed with pride and seemed eager to fight for him, for Nicky.
Queen, the sword's voice buzzed as if admonishing him for using her name.
Robin swung the sword at the door savoring the sound of metal biting deep into the wood. Gabriel had tortured him. He kidnapped Jessie. Made her kill a part of herself. He forced Alexandra into insanity. His actions caused their mother and father to forget Jessie and that would haunt them for the rest of their life. His selfishness had wasted Jessie to almost nothing. With each thought his anger flared brighter, like a flame that was being fanned. The sword's eagerness was increased with his anger, and blue fire ran down the blade and devoured the splinters of wood it touched. Jessie's sword also added damage to door but to much less extent. Robin got the impression his sword was worried about Jessie, she was swinging to weakly.
What was wrong with her, It wondered.
Robin's anger spiked. Jessie couldn't even lift her weapon properly because of what Gabriel had done to her.
Finish it, Robin told the sword.
The flames jumped eagerly to the door and began to consume it.
"The Keeper's flame will take care of the rest of the work," Nicky told them, carefully taking back the weapons she had given them. Jessie and Robin glanced at Gabriel. Already color was fading from his body and clothes and his skin was turning transparent. Alexandra stepped out of the shadows and went to her own door.
"I'll make sure you aren't interpreted." Then she left through her door.
Jessie waited until Gabriel's arms and legs had disappeared before turning to Robin. He was about to burst with questions.
"Ask your questions, he will not hear us."
"Why," Robin blurted out.
A small teasing smile curved up Jessie's lips and her eyebrows arched in a way Robin knew well.
"Care to elaborate on that question?"
"Why did you choose me? I understand not choosing him," he nodded to Gabriel. "But not me."As much as he hated to admit it, it was clear Jessie had cared for Gabriel even if just a friend, so what had she seen in him. Jessie scratched the back of her head thoughtfully.
"Is that what I did?" She ran her hand through her hair, a nervous habit. "I don't think I would have ever chosen Gabriel to be anything other than a friend. I always sensed that there was another side to him that I didn't see and he didn't show. Secrets like that are very dangerous even more so if you have feelings for the person. I could see it only when he interacted with you and it frightened me. You on the other hand," a soft smile touched her lips. "You were honest, you told me you had things you wanted to keep to yourself, you told me that there were things you would not tell me, and I respected that and you. You had a way about you that I couldn't help being drawn to you."
Warmth colored Robin's cheeks and he ducked his head to keep from showing his embracement.
"That's it," Robin asked trying to distract her.
Jessie chuckled knowingly and pretended not to notice her friend's flushed cheeks, knowing full well her own cheeks were colored red with blush.
"There are more reasons, but at the moment I can't think of how to put my thoughts into words."
Robin nodded accepting her answer.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you I felt something for you or tell you that I was a prisoner?"
"The second." Robin had known for a while, when he had had his memories, that Jessie had harbored feelings for him that were more than friendship. He hadn't been able to work up the courage to talk to her about it or how he felt, and apparently neither had she.
"Once I had escaped in order to save you, I was kept heavily sedated. I could fight back with a few characters, but after a while of being drugged, the drugs seemed to build up in my system. I got lost in my own mind I guess you could say. They were using too much because I was causing too much trouble for them. It was a struggle for Gabriel to extract the characters, even if he did, they were deeply flawed, and would break apart when tested on people. Many test subjects went completely insane the first year. I finally realized I could help them, but doing so also drained me. I realized a little too late that I was well in over my head. I couldn't call out for help at that point."
"Then when I did finally build up my strength, I could barely touch your mind. So I waited until I could finally touch your mind. I had to slowly siphon energy from you, making sure not to take too much."
"Why not tell me this then when you were able to get into my dreams? I was starting to remember the more time I spent with you."
Jessie ran her hand through her hair again.
"I'm sorry I didn't ask or tell you, but I wasn't sure where my body was at that point. After I collected enough energy I sent out my call which seemed to have disrupted the characters they were collecting. Though unfortunately it didn't destroy the other creations. As to why I didn't tell you," her lips pulled up into a soft smile. "You are a good man, Robin. I know you would have taken my sacrifice very personally. The guilt and anger you would have felt would have changed you into someone neither of us would recognize."
"You can't know that for sure," Robin refuted even though a small voice in the back of his mind said she was correct.
Jessie shrugged as if what Robin was saying was of no consequence. "It was not a price I was willing to risk you paying. Better to have the man I love hate me for protecting him, than to have the love of a man who only resembles the man I love."
The whole room shuddered making the vines and branches that had been holding Gabriel retreated back to their original position.
Jessie made a dejected sigh. "Looks like our time is almost up."
"What do you mean?"
Jessie took a deep breath and let it out slowly as if trying to forestall her answer. "I'm awake on borrowed time Robin. Muse," she paused and corrected herself, "Alexandra, is allowing me to siphon off some of her energy to help me stay awake and fend off Gabriel. But now she needs her strength to protect us."
It was this moment that Robin looked down and noticed the crystal that Jessie had been leaning up against was now inching its way up and around her legs. It already incased her feet all the way up to her ankles. He jumped toward her and was going to pull her out of the crystal's grasp but she caught his hands instead and shook her head no.
"I need to stay here a little while longer."
When Robin looked like he would protest she laughed a sound that equal amounts of happiness and regret.
"I'm still very broken Dick. This," she patted the crystal gently. "Will protect and heal me, so there's no need to worry. I wasn't able to heal all those years because I had to protect everyone and myself. Now I can. I will be fine." She sighed regretfully, "Now it is time for you to return to your own mind."
Robin turned to his door that would take him back to his own mind. It was already open just a hair, but Robin was more concerned with the carvings that were etched into the surface. Particularly the two depictions of himself that he did not recognize. One was a bold masked crusader a little bit older and a little bit taller than he was now, but the other was so blurry he could hardly make heads or tails of it.
"One last question before I go."
Jessie inclined her head regally like a queen giving her knight permission to speak.
"Who am I here? Why am I blurry in this picture?"
Jessie chuckled and the crystal slid up her shins reaching closer to her knees.
"That is two questions." She held up her hand to silence the protest that she could already see forming in his mind. "It is blurry because that future is not assured. The future is made of such an intricate web of possible paths. Each choice send ripples out and changing the paths to come. In saying this, I'm afraid your first question will remain unanswered, my friend."
"But!"
"Go," Jessie yelled. The door banged the rest of the way open as if a gust of wind had come bursting through it. Then Robin got the impression of a warm hand on his back pushing him through the door; Jessie's joyous laughter followed him all the way back into his own mind. He opened his eyes just in time to see a delicate parasol stop a long metal staff from breaking his head open on the floor.
"About time. I thought you two might be making out," Alexandra remarked in a snarky tone.