"Simon! Wake up! Simon!" He slowly stretched open his eyelids and saw Catwoman crouched in front of him. "Wake the hell up. I know you're alive in there."

"I'm... fine..." he muttered through broken teeth and torn lips.

"What the hell happened?"

"Mask..."

"Black Mask? He was here? He did this?" All he could do was nod, his breathing still ragged. "Where did he go?" She pressed the button on his arm, grimacing at the sight of his mouth.

"Don't know. Ran."

"Shit. Did you at least do a number on him?" He smiled, cracking some of the still-forming scabs on his lips.

"Hell yeah." She smirked a little, then stood.

"You know if you can walk?"

"Still woozy. Help?" He was trying to use as few words as possible; talking hurt.

"In a minute. Look around for your teeth. You look like a redneck." She bent over and gathered a few in her hand, and he checked around him and grabbed two. He took the ones she had grabbed from her and put them into his thigh pouch, then took her hand and stood up with her help. He leaned heavily against her, hardly able to stand from the last smash against the wall. "I already know how he did this to you. Black Mask is a master of mind games. He's got you under his finger so well that he just has to be mentioned for you to get pissed off." He stopped, looked at her with disgust, then pushed away from her and stumbled off.

"Screw you. He's got nothing on me."

"Bullshit, Simon. H-"

"Nightweaver."

"It doesn't matter! Until you can admit that, he's just going to do this again and again. Now come on." She wrapped his arm around her shoulder and half dragged him to the exit. She looked like she was debating how to get him up the ladder, but she brushed her off and climbed up himself, dragging himself onto the ground above and rolling onto his back. Selina came up after him and pulled him to his feet.

"Use your grappling hook. We're never going to make it there on foot. Black Mask is going to send somebody after you.

"Can't right now. Take it." He popped the glove off and slipped it onto her hand, putting her in control of getting them there.

"There's a reason I don't use these things." She pressed the manual launch button and the hook shot up at the building above them; she almost lost her grip, but was able to bring the two of them to the roof. "This isn't going to work. I'm calling Batman."

"Don't. He's got his own shit to worry about."

"You haven't seen how much blood you're drooling out. I've never seen somebody bleed that much from their mouth. Not even Batman." He looked down, vision still hazy, and saw that he'd bled all over the roof just from the few seconds they were there.

"Fine." He got the word out and almost collapsed, dropping to a knee.

"Bruce, we need help. It's Nightweaver. He's hurt. Bad. Bleeding a lot. I'll explain when you get here. Hurry." She crouched down to him and took his helmet off, trying to help calm him down. "Breathe. Think. Clear your head. You've probably got a serious concussion."

"Yeah... I'll be alright. Just need some time..." They heard the Batmobile pull onto the street below them, and within seconds the Bat himself was right there next to them.

"Catwoman, in the Batmobile. Nightweaver?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't bleed on the seats." He grabbed him and jumped off of the roof, using his cape to slow his descent. He helped him into the passenger seat of the armored car, then went around to the other side and got in.

"He'll be fine, he just needs to rest. Not sleep. Severe concussion. Just keep him awake for a few hours, but after that he'll need to stay off duty for a couple of days."

"Know a dentist?" Selina asked. Weaver reached into his pocket and presented his missing and broken teeth to Batman.

"I'll get Alfred to take care of that for you tomorrow. Bad idea to try for it now."

"I'm sorry, Simon. I should have stayed with you."

"Not your fault."

"Black Mask is tricky. He's made me contemplate giving up before. You should have waited for backup, but I can't blame you for going in alone. Good job, Nightweaver." Batman looked sympathetic as he put the Batmobile on autopilot to the hotel.

"Don't patronize me. I screwed up."

"I didn't say that you didn't. I don't think many people could have done differently. I wouldn't have."

"Simon, shut up." He listened, not particularly feeling like fighting anymore. They pulled up to the hotel within a few minutes and Batman helped them up to their floor.

"Get inside, keep him awake for three hours at least, then get some rest. We can move on without him for now."

"Thanks, Bruce, really."

"Just don't let him die." With that, Batman vanished, leaving them at the door. Catwoman pounded on the door, and Kitrina opened it. Selina pushed Simon into the door, and Kitrina gasped at the damage done to her ex's face.

"Get me some wet washcloths, now!" she asked, sending Kitrina off in search for them. Selina kissed him on the cheek, and he looked at her questioningly. "I felt bad. I stormed off like that and you got your ass kicked because I wasn't there. I'm sorry."

"This wasn't your fault."

"We'll talk about it when you're better." He attempted a smile, and she got the message. Kitrina returned with some rags, and Selina started to gently wipe the blood away from his face, careful not to get into any of the tears in his skin.

"He psyched me out..." he breathed out, barely letting the words escape his throat.

"What?" Kitrina asked, still piecing together what happened.

"I can't control myself around him. Need to be calm."

"You're right," Selina added in agreement. "If you'd been able to hold off until I got there, we could have beaten him then and there."

"I'll... do better." The two girls cleaned him up for almost an hour, doing their best to keep him awake. On the other side of town, something entirely different was going on.

Robin jumped down from a pipe high above Black Mask's warehouse, landing nimbly on a balcony above it. The villain had retreated into one of his buildings after his confrontation with Nightweaver; Batman had just called him and informed him of the details. He turned and looked around, noting that the door on the balcony was locked. It didn't rightly matter, he would get in it if he needed to regardless, but he was making note of everything he could as he always did. He peered into one of the windows on the door and, satisfied he could enter stealthily, picked the lock with a lockpick from his utility belt. The door creaked open quietly, and Robin slipped in, making sure to lock the door again behind him to prevent anybody noting something out of place.

He was in a small, dark room; the door on the other side was open, revealing a catwalk into a brightly lit storeroom.

Going to be hard to sneak out onto that catwalk. Need to find another way. He noted the air vent above him and knew his path immediately. He grabbed it and unscrewed the corners quickly, climbed into it, and pulled it shut behind him. It was cramped, but Robin was able to crawl around. He crawled and crawled and crawled, stopping when he started to hear voices. He took a small razor from his belt and cut a slit in the metal, peering down into the warehouse. Black Mask was sitting on a chair, visibly wounded.

Must've been a rough fight. Too bad Sionis won. He was being tended to by two of his men, and they were discussing current plans.

"So, did they find the 'nuke', boss?" one of them asked, making air quotes at "nuke".

"Oh yeah, they found it alright. Dumbasses don't even know what they're about to walk into."

"Chemo's gonna kick their asses."

"He's really too gullible," Black Mask noted, beginning a long, ego-fueled speech on how well he fooled it into becoming his weapon.

Idiot. Robin activated his communicator and sent a message out.

Nightweaver's communicator buzzed; so did Kitrina's right next to it. They both opened theirs at the same time, reading the message as fast as possible.

In Black Mask's warehouse. He seems hurt and there's only a few. Advise? You two know him best. They looked at each other and shook their heads wordlessly. Weaver started typing quickly, hoping to stop him quickly.

Don't fight him alone. Last time we fought we were about equal. I don't want him hurting you too. Just put some surveillance equipment in there and get out. Catgirl agrees with me. We'll take him down together.

Alright. Heading back to the hotel. How are you holding up?

Still bleeding. Glad the girls are here to clean me up.

So, I'm taking it you and Catwoman are getting along well?

You're asking more than just that question, aren't you?

Of course.

Not answering until you ask the real question.

You're together, aren't you?

Yeah. Keep it quiet. We don't want the Bat to know.

He probably already knows. I know they were somewhat together, but he made it pretty clear that he wasn't serious about it. No need to be ashamed.

That, and I don't want her to end up just like Catgirl. A target Black Mask can use against me.

That, I understand. Be there in a minute. Selina left the room, going to clean the blood off of her suit and change. Kitrina sat down next to him, and they spent a few long, awkward minutes in silence.

"You alright?" she asked, breaking the ice.

"Yeah. Just starting to scab over."

"I meant you."

"That, I'm not so sure about."

"Me either."

"You've been through a lot. I haven't exactly helped."

"It's alright. I know I haven't been good to you either. I've been thinking about what you said the other day, and I think I understand now."

"Understand what?"

"Why you did what you did. For a long while, I thought you'd said my name because you wanted me to die instead of Raven. I would've been fine if it had been something like a relationship, but that was life or death, and it hurt a hell of a lot more hearing you say my name. I'm not going to try and get back together with you, Simon. I don't know how you feel about anything, and I don't know if I'm ready to even try right now. I know this sounds cliche, but... can we still be friends?" He smiled, scabs cracking as he did.

"Yeah. Glad we're past that." Selina came out of her room on cue, back in her normal clothes, throwing a bag over her shoulder.

"Looks like I'll be staying here a little longer than I thought, so I'm gonna run home and grab some stuff. Be back soon." She walked out of the door, leaving Kitrina and Simon alone.

"I'm gonna go get this armor off." He stood up, groaning as his broken ribs complained.

Didn't feel that before. Must've been adrenaline. He walked into his room, and popped the chestplate out of place. As he tried to lift it off over his head, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to get it over his face without hurting himself.

"Kitrina?" he half-yelled, hoping she could help get it off of him more gently. She peeked around the corner, not coming into full view. "Can't get this off without hurting myself. Help?" She obliged and came over, helping guide it over his head and away from his mouth. They stopped for a moment, faces inches away from each other, but he pulled back.

"I'm not trying to do anything with you, I can't," he said, sitting down on his bed.

"You're right. I just said I wasn't going to do this."

"Yeah, that."

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

"What's your reason? Don't lie to me. I can take it."

"I'm with Selina. That's why I can't."

"I had figured you two had something going on, but I didn't expect it to be serious."

"It is. We just get along really well."

"We did, too."

"You said you weren't going to do this."

"I know I did. Sometimes you're wrong." She kissed him, half forcing herself onto him. He leaned back and pushed her off, trying to remove himself from the situation.

"Kitrina, I can't. I want to try to do this right with Selina. Not like I did with you and Rae, where it was a jumbled mess of confusion and indecisiveness." She stopped and looked at him, realizing that he really meant it.

"Alright. Alright. Look, can I just get one quick kiss? For old time's sake?"

"That sounds like a way to blackmail me."

"Swear I won't. I just... I miss you sometimes. At least promise me if it doesn't work with Selina, we can try again?"

"As long as "it not working" doesn't involve you wrecking our relationship somehow."

"You don't trust me, do you?"

"I don't trust many people anymore."

"I'm not going to try to kill your relationship. I'm glad you're happy right now."

"One kiss. That's it. And if it doesn't work out, then we can try again. I was happy when I was with you, too." She leaned forward into an awkward kiss, and he broke it off quickly. She smiled, glad for the development.

"Thanks. I'm gonna go take a nap. Remember, stay awake." She left him alone, and he changed into a t-shirt and jeans, getting finished just as Selina walked back into the apartment. He left his room and greeted her with a kiss, surprising her.

"What was that about?"

"Just happy to see you, is all."

"Like I said, stick to what you normally do. Complimenting people doesn't suit you." She laid her bags down and flopped down on the couch, the visual embodiment of tired. Weaver followed suit and curled up next to her, and they both passed out then and there.