Chapter 5

This was now the second time Huntress woke up to pain following a fight with Red Hood. Suffice to say she did not appreciate the recurring nature of the event.

Groaning and forcing herself up, Huntress found that at least he hadn't hurt her as badly this time. Only just enough to knock her out. Not much of a comfort, but at least she could get up and move without it hurting all over…

...or rather she could if her hands and feet weren't currently bound.

"Sorry babe but there's no way I'm taking chances"

Looking up, Huntress saw Red Hood watching her from a badly damaged lounge chair, his knife in one hand and a drink in the other. His crimson helmet sat on the table in-between them along with extra ammunition for his guns, shuriken, and other weapons and gadgets.

"Nice place you have here" Huntress remarked sarcastically.

"It's not mine. Just a temporary residence"

"Why'd you kidnap me?"

"I didn't. I...chose to get you out of there before the cops showed up"

"Why?"

"Good question" Jason replied coldly. "I don't know why. Just that I chose to. I can't explain it"

"Sounds to me like your conscience finally caught up with you" Huntress said smugly, smirking as she did.

"That's a nice sentiment" Jason said sarcastically before adding matter-of-factly: "Didn't expect it from someone like you"

"Just calling it like I see it. Why else would you have 'rescued me'?" Huntress put as much derision into that last part as she could. Next thing she knew Jason was hovering over her and forcing her to look at him. "Careful toots. I'm going against my better judgment already. Don't push it"

"What made you do it?" Huntress pressed, her smile not fading. "Sucker for a pretty face maybe?"

"Don't flatter yourself"

Unfazed, Huntress inched herself closer to Jason, until her face was right in front of his. "Admit it: you hated hurting me"

"Can't say I loved it"

"Like I said: your conscience caught up with you"

Jason grabbed Huntress' hair and held her head in place. "I may not have enjoyed it either of the times I did it but I'll do it again if you keep pushing me. I won't let anyone stop me. Not even you"

"So you do care?" Huntress asked, again giving no ground. She'd finally stumbled upon a chink in his armor.

"About you?" Jason fell silent and released his grip on Huntress as he seemed to consider this. Finally he answered: "Well I could say no, but I guess I'd be lying wouldn't I? Yeah, I care about you. More than I do most anyway. We're similar, and I can appreciate that. You just want to move past your anger. Whereas with me, I've embraced it. Weaponized it."

"I don't want to fight you Jason" Huntress said.

"All evidence to the contrary"

"Look, Jason, trust me when I say that I meant everything I said before. I've been down this road, and...now that I think about it, and now that I see you...and your situation...I'm beginning to rethink myself. I haven't been even remotely happy since the day I lost my parents Jason. And killing criminals sure as hell hasn't done anything to fill the void. I need something more. I need a purpose beyond hatred. And I think you need the same thing"

"Well you think wrong" Jason said coldly. "This is all I need. All I want. Either you can start helping me instead of hindering me, or you can stay out of my way. I don't really care."

"I'm not going to do either of those things Jason. I'm going to keep fighting you and you'll have to keep hurting me to stop me. Do you want to do that?"

Jason said nothing, and the red mask he wore over his eyes concealed whatever they were showing, but Huntress could still feel them soften as he took in what she asked him, the sliver of humanity and goodness that he still had left inside him entering those unseen eyes. Huntress could only pray that it would be enough.

Finally, Jason let out a sigh and slumped back into his chair. "You're never going to give up are you lady?"

Huntress shook her head. "No. I know what you've been through and what you're going through now too well to just turn my back on you. Like you said we're similar. And it's because of that that I care so much"

Jason said nothing in response to this, instead just sitting there silently putting all of his attention to the drink in his hand, which he finished in mere moments anyway. And then after that he seemed to Huntress to just drift off into space, appearing to be thinking of nothing but Huntress knew better. He was thinking about what she had told him. That he actually seemed to be thinking about it at all gave Huntress hope that she was getting through to him. And that in turn told her that she could reach him if she just kept it up.

Finally, Jason let another sigh escape him as he said: "You shouldn't care so much about me. I'm a killer several times over and I've hurt you twice now. I'm not worth it"

"That's what most people always thought about me. But others never stopped until they'd helped change me. And now I'm not going to stop until I've changed you"

"I think you're going to be hounding me for a very long time lady"

Helena smiled. "Fine with me. I'm the Huntress remember? Where's the fun if I catch my prey too soon?"

"Where's the fun if you don't catch your prey at all?" Jason retorted.

"That won't happen"

"If you say so"

"So...are you ever going to let me out of here?"

Jason smirked. "Eventually yeah. Don't like my company?"

"No, I just don't like being tied up for long stretches of time"

-X-

Suffice to say, Helena's hopes had been renewed following her last talk with Jason, and she was now trying harder than ever to steer him in a better direction and away from the prolonged and dramatic suicide he had in mind for himself.

Huntress also found that she was beginning to get better herself. More and more she found it less necessary to kill criminals when before she believed it was what was needed to stop them for good. Now she seemed content to just smack the taste out of their mouths and be done with it, which was exactly what Batman himself had always done. Her old willingness to use lethal force was fast waning as all the while she continued her attempts to get Jason to abandon his.

As it was Huntress didn't see Red Hood again for over a week after her last "talk" with him. In the meantime she went on with her life as she usually did, going back and forth between her day-job as a school-teacher and her nighttime exploits as the Huntress, both alone and working with Barbara and Dinah, who along with Nightwing and Robin were two of the only people who were willing to give her a second chance.

Then one day she saw him again, and not under the best of circumstances.

"What the hell happened?" Huntress demanded as a thoroughly battered, beaten, and bloodied Red Hood showed up in front of where she had left her motorcycle after going to deal with some gun-runners. His body armor had taken it's share of punishment, his coat was damaged and missing an entire chunk, and his helmet was cracked. In all he looked like a complete mess.

"Killer Croc" Red Hood explained. "Bastard tried to make a meal out of some kids playing in the sewers. I snapped and rushed in like an idiot"

"And Croc?"

"Dead"

Huntress' eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure considering what I did to him. Croc had me but he was stupid and careless and I exploited that. Honestly though I'm not in much better shape myself. I can barely stand, my ribs are broken, and I'm pretty sure I'm bleeding internally..."

Red Hood tried to move forward and promptly collapsed. Swearing under her breath Huntress got Jason onto her motorcycle and strapped him in so that he wouldn't go flying off when she started driving through the streets as fast as she could to get him medical attention. She was all set to take him straight to the hospital, but then she remembered that to do that would be to give him up to the police. But there was no way she could heal him adequately by herself. She couldn't take him to Alfred either for obvious reasons. So in the end she decided on what was far from her best idea ever but also the only one she could go with.

Ducking behind another alley, Huntress removed Red Hood's armor, helmet, belt, and weapons and brought him into Gotham General half-naked and wrapped in her cape.

"Help him!" Huntress shouted. "For god's sake someone help him he's dying!"

To Huntress' enormous relief paramedics arrived in an instant and hurriedly transported Jason away. Huntress wanted to stay with him, but she knew there was nothing to be done at this point and in any event she needed to make sure no one had stolen any of Red Hood's gear in her absence. The last thing she needed in her day was some idiot running around with his arsenal.

Returning to the dumpster in an alleyway where she'd hidden Red Hood's stuff, Huntress was pleased to find that it was all still there, down to the last shuriken. Grabbing an empty garbage bag nearby she stuffed all of Red Hood's stuff into it and attached it to her motorcycle. Then she drove back to the hospital to ask about Jason, though she obviously didn't ask for him by his name.

"He's suffered multiple broken ribs, bite marks, and internal bleeding. He's lost a lot of blood and he still hasn't been stabilized"

"Can you save him?"

"Yes we should be able to. The wounds are already being patched up, the main problem is the internal bleeding and the broken ribs. Those are more threatening and need to be dealt with immediately. After that he'll need a blood transfusion"

"But he'll be okay?"

"There are no certainties here except that we'll do everything we can" the doctor said. "As it is now, we think we can save him. Do you know what happened to him?"

Huntress wasn't entirely sure she should mention Killer Croc, but she figured that with some of his injuries being bite marks they would have figured it out anyway. So it was that Huntress answered: "Some kids ran into a sewer that Killer Croc was in. He went down there to pull them out and this happened to him. I was able to get to him before Croc could finish him though"

"Brave man coming to those kid's rescue like that. Especially since it almost cost him his life"

"Yeah" Huntress said, silently noting how this was probably the single most heroic and selfless thing she'd seen Jason do since getting to know him. "...a real hero"

-X-

Jason remained hospitalized for well over a month after that. And the entire time Huntress kept discreet watch over him, also fearing constantly that Bruce would come for him while he was vulnerable. Helena did her best to dismiss such fears, as there was no way Bruce could possibly no the hospitalized man, one of many, was the Red Hood, but at the same time he would have had to have taken notice of Red Hood's absence, and for that matter Killer Croc's, who Helena for one was not shedding any tears for. The monster had been blamed for the "disappearances" of dozens of vagrants and was a convicted mass murderer and cannibal.

The entire time Huntress kept the bag containing Red Hood's armor, helmet, weapons, and gear. Common sense dictated that she get rid of it, or else give it to Batman or the police. But something stopped her from doing any of those things. She didn't know what it was, but she had a few ideas. If nothing else she didn't want it being traced back to the man currently enduring a lengthy hospital stay.

Eventually though after about five weeks that hospital stay came to an end and Jason was released. Helena Bertenelli was there to meet him and take him away under the cover story that he was a friend, which Jason played along with. Once alone though he wasted no time asking her what she did with his stuff.

"I still have it. I'm not sure I should give it back to you though"

"Like you could stop me"

"You don't know where I'm keeping it" Helena pointed out. "Really I should have given it to Bruce or the cops"

"And why didn't you?"

"Because I didn't want to run the risk that it could be tracked to you while you were hospitalized"

Jason chuckled at this. "Ah you really do care. I'm touched"

"Prison's not going to help you anymore than it would have me. And there's no way I want you alone in a place with dozens of criminals you can kill"

"So you're gonna rehabilitate me instead? Wow"

"I did save your life you know"

"Yeah, you did. Don't think I'm not ungrateful by the way, but that doesn't mean I'll let you hold it over my head forever"

"Well either way you're not getting your stuff back until I know you can be trusted with it. And you're never seeing your guns again, I can promise you that. I already dumped all the ammunition for them in the lake so you'd just be getting empty guns back anyway"

"Man and I thought I was a hard-ass"

"I'm probably going to get rid of the grenades too"

"Just don't throw the knife away" Jason said. "That was a gift"

"Fine. I can use it for cooking anyway" Helena smiled and Jason returned the gesture, "Looks like I'm not the only one who can push buttons"

"I do my share"

"So where do we go from here?"

"That depends on you Jason. If you're ready to be something better than what you were I can help you with that. But if you still want us to be enemies than we part ways right here right now. Your choice"

Jason seemed to consider this for a moment before saying: "And what if I said I wanted to try the first option?"

"I wouldn't let you into my apartment if that's what you were wondering. Or tell you where your stuff is"

"I'd be totally disappointed in you if you did. No, I figure you saved my life so I guess I owe you this much at least. I'll see where working with you takes me. If I don't like it, I leave. No harm done"

Jason's flippant approach to the whole business didn't exactly thrill Helena but she also figured that she was still making progress with him all the same. She took Jason's hand in her own and gave it a good shake. "Alright. Welcome to my way of doing things"

-X-

Deep beneath Gotham City in the lowest, darkest depths of the sewers something stirred. Something injured, something angry, and something out for blood.

Killer Croc's body had floated downstream and then down the falls after his battle with Red Hood. His scaly skin was covered in knife and bullet wounds and he was now missing one of his eyes. A good number of his trademark razor sharp teeth were now gone too. In all the once terrifying and fearsome Killer Croc had been left a broken ruin.

But still he lived. And as he stirred in the slimy dark green waters, he set himself a new goal: bite the Red Hood's namesake right off his slim body.