Catwoman and Catgirl barged in the door to the suite, causing Weaver to snap into action without realizing who it was. Selina caught his arm before he could throw the first punch and he eased up.
"We've got to talk," she said sternly, half dragging him back into the bedroom they shared. She pulled her mask back and the two stared awkwardly at each other for a moment.
"About?" he asked, the tension increasing.
"Kitrina. Look, I know I shouldn't have, but I-"
"Spied on my therapy session. You aren't as sneaky as you think."
"You aren't angry?"
"That won't help anything. So you heard that I've still got feelings for her, and I'm not going to lie, that's entirely true."
"So?"
"So that doesn't mean I'm going to let those feelings for her get in the way of the ones I have for you. I'm not going to ditch you for her, I'm not going to cheat, nothing is going to happen like that. The only time those feelings come into play is if something happens between us." She was silent for a moment, running it through her mind for a moment, and seemed to come to a conclusion.
"Simon, you're a great guy. I'm going to do this because you were honest. If you want to go for her, this is your chance, right now. No hard feelings, we're still friends, it's all good." He hung his head, deja vu surging back to him.
"Do I have to make this choice now? I'm terrible with choices."
"I know you are. Look at it this way. You're on a ledge, with a decent amount of money. Now, let's say you jump off the ledge. At the bottom, there might be more money, a little less money, the same amount, hell, even no money. Maybe you just hit the bottom and crash. Which do you take?"
"The one with more possibilities," he said almost out of impulse, realizing what he'd said nanoseconds later. She stopped him before he could say anything else, holding a finger to his lips.
"Thing is, there's a ladder back to that ledge in this case. It doesn't work out, I'll be here for you." He tried to smile, a stream of guilt still flowing through him.
"You're pretty damn good too, Selina. Thanks." He kissed her one last time, then started to snap his armor together. He rushed out into the main area of the suite and grabbed Catgirl by the hand, pulling her through the doorway and to the window.
"Grab on." She obeyed, confused as she was; in minutes, they were on top of the highest building in Gotham.
"What's this all about?" she asked, entirely unsure of the events that had unfolded.
"Sit down." They both sat on the edge of the building, staring out at the morning sun.
This is odd. I thought I was happy before, but... I feel better now. Selina's great, but I think this is for the best. Catgirl was still staring at him, trying to read his face. He pressed the release on his facemask and let out a deep breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"Simon?"
"We came to a bit of an agreement."
"And that was?" He grabbed her hand and gripped it tightly, trying to think of what to say.
"I'm ready to try again if you are." It took her a moment to process it, and she leaned over and wrapped herself around his arm.
This feels right. It finally feels right. They laid back, happy to be back together.
The day slowly transitioned into night, and Nightweaver spent all day with Catgirl, delighted at the old-but-new-again feelings. It was interrupted when his communicator buzzed.
White Death has been found. Easy opportunity to take it out. You in? ~ Robin
Definitely. Be there soon. He smirked to himself.
I don't feel like murdering Black Mask anymore. Well shit. He tapped Catgirl on the side; she'd fallen asleep half on top of him almost an hour ago.
"What is it?"
"Found the assassin. We're going to take it down. Black Mask can come later."
"Alright," she said groggily. They got up from their perch high above Gotham and jumped off hand-in-hand.
Robin roundhouse kicked at the assassin, narrowly missing it's head as it dodged underneath his boot. It straightened out and punched the Boy Wonder in the stomach, doubling him over. Nightweaver and Catgirl swept in just as this happened; he slammed a foot into its chest, knocking it over as Catgirl rolled to a standing position. The White Death drew its katana and slashed at his shins; Nightweaver easily jumped over it, but the assassin continued spinning with the swing and caught him in the head with the pommel. He fell to the ground as Catgirl leapt between them, grabbing the sword and tearing it from its gloved hands. Her claws caught one of the gloves and tore through them, revealing wiring. Robin stood and saw sparks shooting out of it and realized what their enemy truly was.
"Nightweaver! Tase it!" He did as Robin commanded and shot out both tasers, aiming for the hand as best he could; luckily for them, the robot's programming told it to try to counter. It grabbed a hold of both projectiles, allowing them to dig slightly into the exposed wires and overload the system. Sparks shot from its hand and it began to smoke slightly before all of its limbs locked into place and it fell over. The three of them got up, looking blankly at the statue-esque body.
"Seems kinda anticlimactic, doesn't it?" Weaver asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah."
"Wait!" Catgirl yelled, pointing at the robot's corpse; it's fingers were beginning to twitch.
"Should've seen it coming." Robin grabbed his staff and a bomb disc; he planted the disk on it's chest, took aim for a moment, then slammed his staff down onto the disc, shattering it into several pieces.
"Fools." All three heads snapped around to see another White Death standing not fifteen feet away from them. "You're just scratching the surface. Open it up and see for yourself." The second White Death vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving them to investigate. Robin shoved his staff into the broken chest cavity and pried it open, revealing a larger, middle-aged man wearing nothing but some sort of shock collar.
"Robin, get Batman. Kitrina, can you get that collar off him without hurting him?" She eyed it over for a moment, then shook her head.
"If you look at the seam, its clearly embedded in his skin. No way I'm getting it off of him here."
"Alright. Keep a lookout."
"No need. Enemies are already here." Black Mask and his cronies were on the approach, each of them armed with an assault rifle.
"You kill it?"
"Turns out there's more than one."
"Did you kill the right one, then?" Sionis asked through gritted teeth.
"No. Not yet." Nightweaver grabbed him with his left hand and put his right directly through his abdomen, his fist bursting through his back in a shower of blood.
"The fuck?!" one of his henchmen yelled, all of them backpedaling and aiming at him.
"Leave. Now. You'll live longer." The men all ran, some of them throwing down their weapons as they did.
"Simon... How?..."
"Suit can amplify strength when needed. Got sick of him." He put his right hand down as Roman Sionis' body slipped off, dropping to the ground with a loud splat. Robin was staring at him wide-eyed, not sure what to do.
"You realize you just screwed us, right? We needed him to fight off these White Death things."
"No, we don't. A bunch of thugs with assault rifles aren't going to save us. We can do better than them with our bare hands." Batman swooped in and quickly realized what was going on.
"Simon, out of the suit, now. Robin, collect the civilian."
"Out of the suit?"
"Out. You're incredibly unstable right now and I can't risk you doing anything stupid."
"So you want me out of the suit."
"I thought I made that clear."
"I'm not getting out of the suit."
"Then I'll take you out of it." Batman reached to his utility belt, but Weaver shot a grappling hook at the clasp and yanking it off. The Dark Knight growled at him, and the two stopped in a standoff. Robin and Catgirl just stood by, neither sure of which side to help. Batman took several slow steps towards Weaver and threw the first punch, hitting him square in the face. He recoiled from the hit and recovered quickly, hitting him in the stomach and bringing an elbow around into his face. Batman grabbed his elbow and brought to the ground, then shoved it behind his back and got on top of him.
"Stand down!"
"No!" Weaver bucked, throwing off his balance just long enough to get his knees under him and stand back up. He fell back onto his back, knocking Batman off of him and turning to punch him in the head. Satisfied, he tried to walk away, but the suit stopped responding to him entirely. He was still able to turn his head, and he saw Batman on one knee, holding an electronic jammer. He hadn't noticed that Wayne had landed directly next to his utility belt. Batman forced several fingers through the chestplate of his suit and tore it in two, ripping Weaver out of it and onto the ground. He grabbed a taser from Batman's belt before he could turn around and jammed it into his ribcage, sending him to the ground. He grabbed his now limp suit and tried to get in, but Kitrina grabbed his arm.
"Stop." He paused just long enough for Batman to get him in a headlock; his arms pressed against his throat, cutting off the air and choking him until he passed out.
Simon woke up handcuffed to a chair somewhere in Wayne Manor. It wasn't long before Bruce Wayne entered the room, dressed to the nines.
"Let me go."
"I'm considering it."
"Fine. What are your conditions?"
"Straight to negotiation, then. You stay here. Be my sidekick for a while."
"Why?"
"You're troubled. You need help controlling your anger. I'll forget that you just brutally murdered Black Mask if you at least really try and control yourself. You say yes, I get you dressed and we go to a company fundraiser. You say no, you get sedated and put into a cell in the cave."
"Why a fundraiser?"
"You lack a normal social life. Every hero needs some kind of normal life. Helps balance things out. I'll have some forgeries made that establish you as an inner city youth that I've taken in."
"I have as much of a social life as I can handle."
"Exactly. You'll learn to leave it at the door. You let yourself constantly think about Black Mask. That's how you could be sick of him, as you put it, despite having minimal contact with him recently."
"I don't want to, but I don't exactly have much of a choice, do I?"
"No," he said almost smugly, adjusting his wrist cuffs.
"Fine, but I don't want to go to this fundraiser."
"I can deal with that. Go find Alfred and talk to him. And before you get any ideas, you've got a chip in your skull that will alert me if you try to run, and there are self destruct protocols installed on your suit if the proper password isn't supplied."
"So even if I said no, you'd have me by the balls."
"Basically," Bruce said as he unlocked his cuffs. Simon could barely get up before he was out of the door. Alfred was in the room less than a minute later, leading him somewhere deep within the bowels of the mansion. They made it into a room filled with file cabinets and Alfred took a seat at a table. There was a single folder on the table, and Alfred pushed it towards him.
"Your new identity. You will be put into Gotham High, so as to more closely associate you with the public and help you with developing relationships with people." He grabbed it, but didn't open it.
"Do you think you could do me a favor?"
"That depends on what the favor is."
"I don't want to go into this alone. Could I call around to some of my friends and see if one of them will do it with me?"
"Certainly. I see no reason for Master Wayne to have issue, and a false identity is surprisingly easy to manufacture." He fished Simon's communicator out of his coat pocket and gave it to him.
"You kept it on you?"
"I had a hunch you'd want it." He flipped it open and called Kitrina, then stepped out of the room for some privacy.
"Simon?"
"Yeah. Look, it's a long story, but I'm getting forced to go to high school. I don't want to do this alone."
"No, Simon. I just got out of high school a year ago. I'm never going back. Never again." His heart dropped for a moment, but then what had just happened registered in his head.
"Screw you. No, no, fuck you. The shit we've been through for each other, and this is where you draw the line? Doing something you've already done that I'm nervous and scared about? Don't you think it would be a good idea for me to have somebody help me get through this shit? Go fuck yourself. I thought you were better than this. I guess I was wrong."
"Simon, I-" He shut the communicator before she could finish, then held his head against the wall for what seemed like an hour.
"Are you alright, sir?"
"Just give me a minute. That was... That was bad."
"This might be hard to believe, but Master Wayne has been through his fair share of heartbreak. I would like to advise you not to do what he does. It isn't healthy."
"Just shut it in and bottle it up?"
"He's a strong willed man, but he isn't stable. Find an outlet. You'll thank me later." Before Simon could respond, a portal opened in the floor and Raven appeared out of it.
"What's wrong? I've been trying to keep track of you since Batman knocked you out, but I just felt a huge wave of grief."
"It's Kitrina. Just leave it at that."
"Did you two already break up again?"
"Yeah. I'm done with her." He walked away, leaving Raven and Alfred alone.
"What happened, Alfred?"
"Master Weaver asked her to accompany him in his new alternate identity and she refused, from what I could tell."
"His new alternate identity?"
"Master Wayne has determined that it would be mentally healthy for him to have a civilian aspect to his life. He will be attending high school, starting in the eleventh grade."
"Sign me up. He needs somebody with him, it may as well be me."
"That's very kind of you, but are you sure that you'll be able to fit in?"
"I've been able to pass for a civilian before. Don't worry about me."
"I'll have your papers ready for you in the morning."
"Thank you. I'm going to go find him."
It didn't take Raven long to track Simon down, sulking in what he assumed would have ended up being his bedroom.
"You gonna be alright?" she asked, sitting down next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah. I should have seen this coming."
"No, this isn't your fault. You can't control whether or not somebody else is a bad person." He didn't have anything to say back, and they just sat there for a few minutes in silence.
"I just can't believe she would refuse," he said, assuming Alfred had explained the situation.
"You aren't going to be alone. I'm coming with you."
"You wouldn't mind getting forced through school again?"
"I never went through school in the first place. We're going to be in the exact same boat."
"It means a lot to me."
"Don't worry about it. Just do me a favor and don't be down the whole time. We won't have much time until we start."
"Really, though, thank you. I owe you big time, Rae."
"To be honest, I probably wouldn't do this if you weren't doing it anyways, so we really need each other in this situation. Although I do find it particularly entertaining how scared you are of facing the public. You'll willingly go against an army of elite death robots, but god forbid you get kicked out of a clique."
"I'm just not exactly great in big social situations."
"That really is cute, you know."
"You're a great friend, Rae."
"You're the first person I was ever able to fully open up to. I don't try and take care of you, what kind of person does that make me? You are honestly my best friend, and if I treat my best friend like shit, then I deserve nothing more than to resign to a life of servitude under Trigon."
"You're the best friend I've got, too. I'm sorry if I don't always act like it. It's just that sometimes I get distracted from what really matters and I act like an ass. I never should have taken Kitrina over you. I can see that now."
"It's not too late, Weaver."
"Do you think we could start over? Write off all of my screwups? I know it's a lot to ask, but-"
"Don't worry about any of it." She smiled reassuringly at him just as Bruce stepped into the room, leaning on the doorframe.
"Alfred told me about your idea. I approve. I do not approve of you doing it behind my back. Make it the last time. Raven, you'll stay here from now on. Notify the Titans. And before it becomes an issue, yes, you can stay in the same room. I've been listening long enough to know where this is going. I wouldn't try and control that. You start school in two days. Make sure you're ready." He left, leaving the two of them alone again.
"Get to sleep. We'll go and grab some normal clothes tomorrow." He turned and kissed her on the forehead, then slipped under the blankets and passed out.