Driving through the streets of Gotham while knowing Blüdheaven had just been blown to dust didn't sit well in the mouth, but there wasn't much she could do. Besides hoping Nightwing was alive, but if he had been in there… it wasn't doing much thinking about it for now. Oracle had given the Birds an outlook for Batman's former deceased Robin, Jason Todd, who apparently had returned from death and was the one behind the Red Hood. Helena didn't know what had transpired between the Big Bat and his son just now, but she had seen the explosion from ten blocks away and guessed nothing good had come out of that confrontation. And Helena thought she had daddy issues… well, maybe she would have if she hadn't orchestrated her biological father's death. So Helena just classified it now as having issues. But she was working on it.

The other issue she had right now, or at least it would be soon, was the timer on her wrist, the numbers that were ticking backward until she met her soulmate. It would be this night, at 10:54 to be exact. So it would be at any moment now, though driving her bike at full speed didn't seem like an ideal way of meeting them. Was she going to run them over? That does sound like her rotten luck. Either way, she wasn't going out of her way for whoever it was, after all, one way or the other they would meet at 10:54.

Helena looked down at the glowing numbers on the screen of her bike, 10:53. Well, looks like running over it'll be. She thought.

Except it wasn't, as she slowed to turn a corner to Cage Street, she caught movement in the alley opposite to it. Someone had just jumped down from the fire escape of the side of one of the buildings, rather than revving the acceleration after the sharp turn she stopped completely her bike and stared. It was a man, at least as tall as Batman, he had a leather jacket, cargo pants, and combat boots. He was pressing his hand against his neck, Helena was very sure it was to stop bleeding, then flickered her eyes back to the clock on her bike, it passed from 10:53 to 10:54 at that moment. If Helena had taken off her right gauntlet the numbers in her wrist would be quickly approaching zero. She sighed and looked at the clouded and polluted sky of Gotham, Helena had a bad feeling about who that man in the alley was.

"My path to atonement won't get easier will it?" She muttered and turned the engine off. Helena shot her grapple gun to the nearest building of the alley and propped herself to swing quickly toward her suspected soulmate. She landed with as much noise and queues to make sure the man wouldn't be unaware of her arrival, and perhaps it would have been better to do the exact opposite for as soon as she landed she had to roll out of the way of a knife.

"Woah! Easy there, I just want to help you," Helena said calmly if not a little coldly at the man who was facing her now a couple of meters away.

He snorted. "Yeah, right. You work with the Bat," He hissed with a hand still pressed to the side of his neck, a black domino covering his eyes

Now that she was closer Helena could see that her previous assessment had been right. There was quite some blood on his clothes, she just hoped it looked worse than it really was. She still remained crouched, ready to dodge any other dangerous projectile thrown her way, but she still raised her hands over her head, hoping that would pacify him a bit.

"Yes, I work with Bats. But right now, this doesn't have anything to do with him," Helena said, while her eyes followed each of his movements, he was prone to violence right now.

The man was panting from exertion. If he was who she believed he was, then he came from fighting the old Bat. No one came out of that in one piece, so Helena was pretty confident she could subdue him without much fuss, but she would rather not. An expression of confusion passed quickly over his features.

Great. He's not even aware of his soulmark.

Helena sighed and tapped her wrist where Soulmark was. It was almost amusing, watching him frown in confusion then his mind kicking in and his eyes widen in comprehension. He pulled his hand away from his bleeding neck and looked at his wrist where the zeroes were probably mocking him.

"Fuck!" He cursed, then wobbled some and had to lean against the brick wall to his side. Helena thought it charming to have that reaction out of her soulmate when he realized what was happening. In her top scenarios of how meeting her soulmate would rank pretty low.

"Yes, fuck." Helena wasn't one to usually curse, but well, the situation merited it.

He squinted his eyes at her but said nothing else nor made an attempt to move.

"Ok. How about you let me take a look at that wound before you pass out?" Helena said moving slowly towards him, it wasn't that different to have been approaching a wild wolf with a paw stuck in a bear trap.

"How about you fuck off?" He spat with venom.

Uh oh, someone is a really angry boy. Helana thought but had enough sense to not say it out loud.

"That won't do mate. We're stuck with each other even if you don't like it."

"Says who?" Now he sounded like a petulant child.

"Well—" Helena continued her slow approach– "God for one, or if you don't believe in Him, then fate? Destiny? I don't know baby bat, but—" Helena had to cut short her sentence as he pulled out a gun and shot her. Or would have if she hadn't moved.

"Don't ever call me that," He hissed.

Huh, so he really must be the presumed dead Robin. Which was exactly what she had been taunting for, some clue to confirm her suspicions.

"Alright, I won't." This time she didn't try to approach him again, not that Helena was worried that he could actually harm her in his current state, he could barely keep his gun upright.

"You're not leaving me alone are you?" He said resigned.

"No." Helena deadpanned. "Now, will you stop trying to kill me?"

His breathing was still somewhat labored, and Helena wasn't sure if he was about to pass out at any moment or if he simply was exhausted with some blood loss.

"No," He answered but as she had been expecting then he fainted. Helena was close enough to save him from the worst of the fall, but he was pretty heavy and she was wondering how she could take him anywhere. First things first though, she quickly checked his neck turning to pull out a lamplight from her belt, it wasn't bleeding much anymore, still, she pulled out some bandage, and after a quick spraying and cleaning she wrapped the bleeding wound.

"What now, baby bat?" She asked the unconscious man in her arms. Calling Oracle was quickly dismissed, she'd immediately alert Batman and Helena didn't have anything against the man, besides the mutual mistrust, but she was sure her soulmate wouldn't appreciate her ratting him out first thing. And even if she did not hold any real big expectations of them magically ending up in any sort of working relationship, she would rather have as good a start with him as she could. God knew she wasn't good at making friends or keeping them. As for relationships, she'd never been in one, first because Helena had been too consumed in her little revenge plotting. And then just decided to wait for her so-called soulmate, even when the timer had oddly stopped for a couple of days.

That had been weird, but now, maybe it made sense. Helena sighed and somehow managed to pull the much heavier man to her bike… This would be so much easier if she had a car. There wasn't even a car to highjack in sight.

"Whatever. Let's hope you won't fall off," She muttered to her soulmate.

Everything fucking hurt. Especially his neck, it throbbed. Where was he? The explosion, the fucking clown, Batman. His blood suddenly boiled and was about to open his eyes when a hand slid through his hair. It should have made him bolt, to lash out at the person attached to the offending hand, but he couldn't. He couldn't because it felt so nice, so good, so right. It sent a tingle that moved down his back, then ran through all his body filling him with calmness and relief from the boiling anger.

Finally, he cracked his eyes open. Jason couldn't make much out, the night was dark, and even though he was sure it was a full moon night the sky must be clouded. The hand moved to the side of his face then slipped off his cheek and fell into his chest, heavy with sleep. Obviously, there was someone lying beside him, but it still surprised him. Even though now he knew to feel the warmth of the other person, who was not just beside him but very well glued to him. He kept his breathing even—not that it was very hard. Had he been drugged? He wasn't tied nor restrained unless he counted the light weight of the person sleeping at his side, she—yes, he could tell now that it was a woman— had half of her body on top of him.

Jason knew that he should move now, to know where he was and get the fuck out. But—he'd never felt so at ease since he'd dug himself out from his coffin. Then his sluggish mind recalled the last moments before he blackened out in that alley. His heartbeat picked up and now he did tense. To be honest, he hadn't fully believed he'd find his soulmate even when the timer reached zero, and then he really haven't thought nor glanced too often at it. It made his skin itch.

It was just another way of life kicking his choices away from him. He didn't want some mystical bullshit dictating who'd be his partner, hell, he didn't even think he'd ever get to want a partner. And now of all people in the fucking billions of humans in Earth, he'd ended up tied with one of the fucking bats.

"I can feel you thinking, baby bat." A quiet yet hoarse voice made him flinch.

"Don't—call me that." For some reason, he couldn't bring his anger to grow enough to grasp. Jason realized he was very tired.

"But I like—how it sounds…" She trailed off in a breath. He thought she had fallen back asleep, but her hand reached up and passed through his hair again. "Sleep. We can talk tomorrow."

Fuck. It shouldn't work, he didn't want it to work. But it did. Her fingers made slow circles on his scalp, and it was the nicest thing he'd felt in so long. His eyes grew heavy and he breathed out the last bit of resistance in him. Jason fell asleep and didn't have any nightmares disturb his sleep.

The warm sunlight on his face dissolved the darkness of sleep into the red blurriness of his eyelids. Jason groaned and shifted, his body immediately resented the movement, and he turned and hugged the pillow at his side. It smelled fucking nice. Nicer than anything he'd wash any bedclothes of his. Then the smell of coffee and bacon reached him. Finally, he opened his eyes.

He didn't recognize the white wall to the side of the bed, nor the way the light entered through the window at its foot and other side. Jason incorporated himself slowly and moved the bedding away. He looked down, the only thing of his clothing remaining were his boxers.

"Fuck," He muttered. His guns, his knives, everything was gone and nowhere in sight. And someone was making breakfast on the other side of the half-closed door. Memories of last night flooded him and he breathed out, passing a hand down his face.

His soulmate, huh? What did he know of the Huntress? Not much. She worked with Birds and sometimes Batman. He didn't know her civilian name or anything else for the matter. And it seemed like she knew more about him than he of her. He didn't like this at all. And the fact that she had seemed unfazed by him being her soulmate. Hell, she'd even brought him to what he assumed was her place, and not only that but right up tucking him in bed right beside her. What. The. Fuck.

Had she done something to him while he slept?

The door opened and a pair of dark blue eyes peered at him with curiosity. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders as she cocked her head to one side and leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed.

"Feeling better?" Her voice was smooth and her tone firm.

"I—Yeah…" What the fuck was wrong with him? Yes, she was pretty—fucking gorgeous—but it wasn't his first time seeing a beautiful woman before, so he attributed his surprise to the beating of yesterday.

"Good. You can take a shower before eating breakfast. I cleaned what I could from the blood and rubble with a towel, but it's not the same as a bath—Oh, and here—" She moved out of his sight for a second then reappeared and tossed a bundle of clothes at him– "I went to buy some clothes for you, I don't think any of my clothes would fit you."

"Where are my things?"

"Over at the laundry. They're a dirty mess and I won't be washing that."

"No one asked you to."

"No." She smiled at him, and Jason wanted it to drop because his mind had gone blank again. "Shower, over there. Then we can talk over breakfast." She didn't wait for a response and walked away.

Jason didn't know what to do. This was simply put, extremely fucking weird. To feel at ease and nearly trust someone you just met—come to think of it, he didn't even know her name. Fuck damn. He shook his head and took the bundle of new-smelling clothes. A bath sounded good to him and the purplish and greenish hues appearing all over his body would start hurting more as time went on, so—

Great, now I smell like a girl. He thought sourly walking out of the bathroom at having nothing else but flowery sweet stuff to wash with.

"Someone could figure out your secret identity by this smell," He said sniffing. It had come out more naturally than he'd been expecting— because it was.

"Oh, it fades by the time I finish at school so it is fine," She answered after raising her eyes shortly from the newspaper she had been reading. "Sit down, before it gets cold

"School?" He asked dubiously. And almost chose to remain standing, but the bacon, fried eggs on toast, and glass of orange juice called too much to his hunger.

"I'm a teacher at St. Ignatius High School."

Jason took the seat opposite her and took a piece of bacon. "Shouldn't you be in school by now then?"

"It's Saturday." Finally, she folded the newspaper and put it to the side, Jason glimpsed at the headline "Nuclear explosion wipes Blüdhaven". Fuck. Wasn't that unlucky if not wholly unsurprising? He wondered if the Golden Boy had made it alive. Bruce must be going nuts if he didn't, or maybe not, for all he seemed to care—

The realization that he was being intensely stared at hit him immediately. He looked up at those piercing dark eyes and irritation replaced the anger.

"What?" He snapped.

"Nothing. Your sudden change of intense emotions is distracting."

Jason leaned back into his chair and looked at her up and down, then said slowly, "Stay away then." He had read and heard what finding your soulmate entailed, you kind of formed a link or some bullshit like that. Something that allowed you to feel to some extent what the other was feeling, and he remembered the calmness and the steadiness that had surrounded him last night, it hadn't been his. He passed his tongue over his teeth uneasily, mainly because he didn't hate it as much as he wanted to.

She, for her part, answered his rudeness with a sweet smile then a light shake of the head. And Jason felt like a child in the classroom after giving a stupid answer to a question. Meanwhile, Huntress had started to fill her plate with food, but before starting to eat she crossed and tilted her head slightly while he guessed made a quick prayer then started eating.

Jason shifted uncomfortably for many reasons. His body aches for being too long in one position, how she was so condescending and calm, and her religious inclinations, or the fact that she seemed to be able to pick more of their link from his emotions than he could.

Maybe if you weren't trying to reject it you could get the hang of it. Yeah, right. His mind supplied.

"What's your name?" He finally asked after shoving an egg on a toast into his mouth.

"Helena Bertinelli."

"Hm."

"Aren't you going to tell me yours?"

"Nope."

"That's mean, Jason."

"Yes. I'm mean, so what?" Of course, she already knew who he was.

"Well, I think you're cute."

Jason choked on his toast.

"Did you do something to me last night?" He said after drinking juice and reaching for another toast.

Now it was her turn to choke, then she followed with laughter. Jason stared blankly for a moment, she really was beautiful, then looked away when he realized his thoughts.

"I'm not attracted to minors."

"I'm twenty," He growled.

"You could have fooled me with all that angsty-edgy-rebellious vibe you get going."

Fuck damn, he'd walked right into it, hadn't he?

"You reaching your forties?" He shot back and felt like he'd played more into her hand.

Her smile widened and winked at him, "Fifties."

"Ha. Funny," He muttered into the glass of orange juice, then put it down and asked, "Then why put me in your bed?"

"There's no other bed here, and I wasn't sleeping on the couch or the floor. Besides, you became too restless when I separated from you."

Jason felt his face heat, in parts embarrassment and parts anger. Again he was being controlled by something he couldn't choose. He glared odiously at the zero marks on his wrist.

"So what will you do now, Baby Bat?" She–Helena asked after a moment of silence while both of them ate.

"If you call me once more that, I'll—"

"Kill me? Go ahead and try, Baby Bat," She taunted him.

He growled but somehow he didn't feel too much against it anymore. And the more he showed dislike the more she would call him that it seemed. Jason started to worry that this calmness and control was not his own, was being forced on him, was keeping him complaint and—

"Calm down. I wasn't being serious."

"No—I know… Listen, this—whatever this is, it's not going to work. Whatever sick force is trying to bind us, we don't have to let it control us."

Her demeanor visibly softened, "I'm not forcing you to stay, Jason. Or maintain contact with me in any way. You seem to have gone through a lot, and while I don't condone many things that you've done, I can't say I don't understand them. But if you keep down this path you'll just end up self-destructing and whatever good you might be trying to achieve—it will corrupt and twist. Spilling blood when you may choose not to spill it, just taints you, whether the one you kill is evil or scum, it still will leave its mark on you. And if you chose to stay, you can't keep that up."

"Then so be it. I will see all those fuckers in hell if needed." Jason shrugged. He didn't know what he'd been expecting. But now that she'd said that, it was the closest to whatever he could have pictured if he'd had more time.

"I don't think that's what you really want," She said after a pause and examination of his face.

"And how would you know?" He snorted.

"Because you're still a baby in many respects. Even if you've seen more than most. You need time to grow and find joy in life. Wouldn't you rather find that than Hell? Life is tough enough as it is, you don't need to make it more so."

Jason didn't answer, he should have felt insulted, being called a baby—except she hadn't said it mockingly, nor pityingly, nor patronizing, and she just sounded— tired and a little sad. "So you won't try to make me stay nor follow me," He guessed, not a twinge of disappointment there…not at all.

"No." Her answer was firm.

It's not like it surprised him, why would she want a soulmate like him? Just someone else in the long list of people who rejected him. He passed his tongue over his right sharp teeth and asked—challenged, "And what happens when I keep going the way I am? What happens when we come face to face?"

"I'll stop you if I can." Then she smiled sadly. "I can't save you from yourself, Baby Bat. That's not in my power. But I can accompany you on your path if you want to walk another one."

That answer deflated him somewhat, he'd been expecting a definitive clean-cut where she'd state to pretend to not know him, or completely ignore their bond. This was so confusing. And he felt a twinge in his heart, a flake that held hope and trust… And it wasn't his.

He looked up and asked, "And what would that be?" He asked quietly and the most earnest he'd been all this late morning. How would that look?

"Who knows? Perhaps somewhere far away. Have you been to Italy?" Jason shook his head. "Perhaps you'd love it, the small villages and the countryside… Or maybe just traveling around—there's enough injustice around the world where they could use some helping hands. The world is wide and many good can be done—many atonement as well…"

They fell into a lull of silence and both drifted into their thoughts. Jason wondered at the last part, he knew she wasn't speaking just of him. He didn't know what her story was in-depth, but doubted he'd search more about it. A future day, a different future—could he have that? He hadn't stopped to think, to even think about thinking. There was something in the back of his mind always nagging to keep moving, don't stop, don't look, don't listen, or the air will run out, or the soil will not give. The laughter won't stop.

"Baby Bat, you really need to do something about those mood swings." Helena's comment pulled him to the present again. "I have to leave now," She continued looking at the clock over the fridge, "I have to help in the Parish kitchen. Saturday stew night for the homeless, God knows there are too many in this damned city—" She trailed off and got up from her chair.

Jason reached for an apple and bit down on it while following her movements around in silence. It still was odd to think that he really had a soulmate after all it was a fifty-fifty chance you got to be born with a timer, and some timers froze—which meant your soulmate had kicked the bucket. Jason had been expecting that to happen, but it hadn't and now here they were. For good or for bad he still hadn't quite made up his mind yet. She didn't seem about to go and tell Batman about their connection so that much was a win on his books…

"Alright, I'm off. You can eat whatever's on the fridge, and be a darling and wash the dishes, would you? Thanks. If you leave, make sure everything stays closed." All these, she said while putting on her purple jacket and pulling her dark hair free from it after finishing adjusting it. Jason had just hummed in response to all, and when he thought she was finally leaving she paused sighed, and walked to him. Jason had to fight the urge to move away from her as strongly as part of him wanted to allow her to reach for him, in the end, he stood still, not wishing to show her how much she affected him, even if he was sure she could feel it to some extent.

Helena took his chin and made him look up at her gently, then after their eyes locked she leaned down and kissed his forehead. The warmness and softness of her lips seemed to envelop his body for the longest of seconds. Then her lips were gone, and she said softly, "Be careful out there, my Soulmate." He felt her warmness move away and he opened his eyes, he hadn't even noticed when they had fallen shut.

Jason saw her take her purse and walk out the door, yet he stayed in the same spot for who knows how long, it could have been minutes or hours. My Soulmate. Resounded in his head. Those two words had been uttered with so much fondness and joy–he'd felt it as she had felt it–, it still took some of his breath away, because he hadn't thought—he hadn't believed whoever his soulmate would end up being would be glad to have him after they knew who he was, what he was. But she knew enough of his ugliness and debased things he'd done and still seemed happy to have him. It was unbelievable, he couldn't—

He let out a shaky breath and passed his not-less shaky hand through his hair. Then he snapped out of it and got moving to find his gear before leaving this place before his mind got any muddier. Or more clear, something whispered in the back of his head.