Part 13 – Robin

The first shot missed but Jason didn't mind. He elbowed Roy in the gut as the archer moved to grab him and rushed forward.

Catalina laughed as he fired another shot. It nicked her under the arm but, to Jason's fury, she didn't seem to notice. His vision was hazed in red and orange. If he could just get rid of this one stain...

"Red Hood, wait!"

Red and black flashed in his vision and Jason reacted before he understood what was going on. He whipped his gun into Robin's face.

That wasn't enough to stop the replacement. It would figure that Bruce would find someone stupid enough to keep going even when being shot at. Robin surged forward, bo staff in hand, saying something that Jason just didn't listen to.

Jason went to punch the kid, who moved out of the way and tried to hit him with the staff. It seemed he had improved since the last time they had fought.

Jason turned back to where Catalina had been. In the short time he had been distracted by Robin, Catalina had vanished.

He pounced on the brat and held him to the ground. "She got away because of you!" he shouted. "What are you doing here, you stupid replacement?"

"Oracle gave me your coordinates. She thought you might do something stupid like try to kill Tarantula."

"She deserves it! People like her, they don't even realise how they hurt their victims! She's a monster and deserves to die since she'll never realise what she's done."

Robin frowned at him. "Do you realise how you hurt people when you kill?" The kid said it in the calmest voice, as if Jason wasn't holding a gun to his forehead. Then, he had the nerve to completely look past Jason. "Arsenal, are you alright?"

"I've been better," Roy groaned out. "I just didn't expect to get shocked with my own taser weapons."

Right. Jason had done that too. Reaching for the taser arrows had been instinctive. As had the motion of jabbing one into Roy after jabbing him with his elbow.

"That happens," Robin commented.

"This ain't a bloody tea party!" Jason growled at them both. He got up off Robin, pointing his two guns at the two heroes. "Tarantula's gone. And if she's smart, she's probably gone far underground where we'll never find her!"

"I think Batman's assessment of her was that she wasn't the smartest when it comes to being a vigilante."

"We'll find her, Jay," Roy said.

Jason glared at him. Downside of the helmet; Roy couldn't see the fury in his face. "What's this 'we'? I'm not working with you anymore. I'm going to hunt that abuser down and kill her. She won't be getting her claws in him again."

"In who again?" Robin questioned in a frustratingly innocent way.

"What, Oracle didn't tell you?" Jason spat. "That woman, the one you stopped me from killing, has been messing with Nightwing."

"Is that why he seems to have gone 'dark side'?" Robin asked.

"Part of the reason," Roy said with a grunt as he stood up. "Dang, Jay. You got me good."

What the- Jason was standing there, pointing guns at these two and they were chatting like everything was hunky-dory!

"We need to find her, where might she have gone?" Roy questioned.

Robin twitched, hanging his head. "I didn't get a chance to put a tracker on her, sorry."

"Don't worry about it, kid," Arsenal said. "We'll get her."

Jason rolled his eyes. Getting her wasn't the issue. Getting to her before she could hurt someone was.

"Even breath she takes is a sign that I'm not as powerful as I make myself seem. My way works because the scum believe that I can't be stopped and I won't stop until they're dead. I refuse to leave her alone."

Despite the mask, Jason could see Tim roll his eyes. "I'm sure we can find her, we just need to put our heads together. Where would she hide?"

"Oracle's trying to track where she went from here but that's going to take a while," Roy announced, Tim nodding because he knew that too.

Jason growled. He didn't care.

"We can find her faster," Tim said with the air of a promise that gave Jason pause. Surely the kid didn't really believe that? But, it seemed so, judging by the way he continued talking. "So, what do we know about her? Where does she like to go? What does she like to do? Are there certain crimes she'd gravitate towards?"

Jason shared a look with Roy, who looked as baffled as he felt. They both shrugged in unison.

"Nightwing might know," Roy pointed out.

"All I know is she used to be obsessed with him," Jason responded, trying to not relive her words from a few moments ago.

Tim frowned thoughtfully. "So Nightwing might know-"

"We can't go to Nightwing," Arsenal was quick to point out. "He doesn't even know that we were going after her."

Tim looked surprised at that. "But, she hurt him, surely he knows-" The replacement's mouth clicked shout. "She said that she had to do all the work." It was shocking to realise that Tim could go paler than he already was. "I'm jumping to the wrong conclusions again. There's no way Nightwing would let her have her way with him."

"It can happen to anyone," Jason countered. "Including Nightwing."

Tim shivered. "Then, where is he? Why isn't anyone with him? Is he okay?" Jason recoiled as the skinny kid barrelled into him, latching onto his jacket frantically as he fired off question after question.

"He's fine, Robin. He's back in Bludhaven," Roy said.

Tim glared at the archer. "You can't be sure of that, especially if he's in Bludhaven." After a pause, he added, "you don't think she'd go after him?"

In fact, once the idea had been brought up, it turned out they all agreed that she might go after Dick. Roy, Jason and Tim jumped onto the next train to Bludhaven. To save time, they rode along the top in full costume.

"This is insane! Why can't we sit in the nice, safe seats?" Roy howled into the wind.

"At least you're not blindfolded!" Tim shot back with all the confidence of someone who had done this blindfolded. Jason decided that he kind of wanted to hear the story of the replacement train surfing. It'd be good for a few laughs after they get rid of Catalina.

Jason led the way to his safe house, his heart thudding harder the closer they got.

They would arrive and it would turn out that they were worried over nothing, Jason tried to tell himself. But he just couldn't make himself believe it.

They found the door to the safe house wide open. Tim gripped his staff and pointed to the roof. They had already decided that he would stay out of sight until they confirmed the situation with Dick. Jason didn't think springing Robin on Renegade would be good and Tim agreed. Dick was likely to run or yell at him.

Catalina's voice was snappish as it trailed through the open door.

"Decide quickly. I have places to be, Nightwing."

Dick's voice was tight with emotion as he responded, "I know but-"

"What 'but'? You just said it, Red Hood abandoned you."

"He's gone," Dick sounded certain as he responded with that. "Took his helmet and weapons with him..."

"And he shot me. Come on, Nightwing. You can't stay with someone like that. He's the kind of guy we fight against."

"I-I don't... Jay's... he's not..."

Jason ducked his head past the frame to see Dick on the couch, Catalina straddling his lap and running her hands along his arms. Dick had to be more panicked than he appeared because he was slipping and on the edge of using real names with her, a slip that Batman had trained them to never make.

"He didn't mean it," Dick muttered.

Catalina rolled her eyes. "He doesn't want you here."

"I know."

"I just need a few more moments," Tim whispered through the comm. He sounded apologetic and it was the only reason Jason didn't go in and stop this train wreck in its tracks.

"Come on." Catalina pulled herself off him and tugged his arm. Almost like a limp doll, Dick rolled to his feet. "Good boy." She moved forward and kissed him. Dick stood there and let her.

Jason had to look away from the almost-emotionless eyes Dick had. He didn't close them as he kissed her, probably preferring to keep her in his sight. "I'll reward you properly once we get out."

"You killed someone. What if… I don't-"

"Nonsense." She dismissed his concerns instantly. "You were right there. You know I had to do it. And I had to leave you. But I'm here now. Come with me."

Jason hadn't been expecting it, which is why he hadn't been able to stop Roy as he walked right into the room.

"Lady, that's not cool."