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It had taken a while to find where Bruce’s son had run off to. Her father wanted him back, to use him against her former lover, but Talia al Ghul had other plans. Plans that she knew her father wouldn’t care for. If nothing else, it would pave the way to make things easier once she could get her son away from his grandfather.
Though, catching up with him, she had found there was a complication. He had made a friend, a young woman. Talia actually smiles she wasn’t sure if Jason had had friends, she only really knew him as Robin, not as much as Bruce’s son. Though seeing him smile…
Her plans could change, she wanted to see how this girl was managing to keep the effects from the Pit from being destructive. One thing she remembered was that the younger Robin wasn’t as emotionally stable as the older son, Nightwing...
Three weeks of watching the pair, both at the garage, which she frowned about both of them living there, it didn’t seem like it was a proper home, and at the
Though today, he was without the girl. And in the town, she had thought he would never leave the girl’s side. Following for a while, she caught him going down an alley as she watched from across the street, looking at a display in the pharmacy’s window.
Had the bitty bird caught sight of her? She shook her head, there was no way that he would recognize her right? If he did he would have remembered Bruce, and left this horrid place by now. Unless the girl had some hold on him. Though, that could be part of it, the two seemed happy, unconventional, which was causing a stir in the small community. Talia had noted it, seemed there were hushed whispers, nothing good, when they walked around the place.
While it was cute, it didn’t seem like Robin. He wasn’t as bad a flirt as Nightwing. At least she didn’t think so. Though the way the two acted, it didn’t scream romantic… Jason was a bit more of a gentleman when it came to kids and women though. And the mechanic was both, if she had to guess, Talia would insist that the girl couldn’t be older than about sixteen with how small she was.
Moving for the alley, she was cautious, Robin was a little more unpredictable than the original. Though she knew she should stop thinking of him as Robin. There was a new one in Gotham.
For the past few nights he'd been catching glimpses. Though he still wasn't entirely sure what they were about. Wasn't sure who the people were in them. He'd told Mira a little what he remembered but never enough. Something that agitated the hell out of him. If it was one thing that he hated it was not knowing who he, himself, was. Not knowing the names and the pictures within his own mind.
Jason had decided to head out and take a walk around the town. Get a lay of the land, as it were. Something that felt familiar. He's not entirely sure if it's something he used to do but it felt right. Maybe it had been done with someone else or perhaps he'd done it alone. Either way this was a new place and he needed to know where all the exits were. Who all the people were. People, who weren't all that fond of strangers, it seemed.
There was something about off and he couldn't put his finger on it as he walked. As if someone was following him. You only followed those you knew unless you wanted to mug them. That much he knew. Or maybe it had happened to him once or someone that he knew. He just knew that it didn't happen without something bad going on afterward. It's why he takes the alleyway instead of the street, simply walking. Never running. If you run then they catch you. Not that he knew who 'they' were.
So once he gets to the back of the alley he keeps himself faced towards the wall. Towards the place where no one could scale. Though he's sure that if he tried then he could do it. Maybe. "You want to tell me why you're tailing me?" The question is filled with a bit of confusion and anger mixed together. His shoulders squared and ready for a fight if it came down to it despite not looking in his follower's direction yet.
She knew the voice, so familiar even if he had been changed by the pit. "You ran off before I could help you. Managed to get you away from father, but your father still will not understand." She kept her distance, though noted the wall. A quick glance and she knew that she could scale it. She had a feeling her beloved's protege, even with being broken as much as he was, could do the same.
"You and I do not belong in this place. We will only bring danger to those around us here." She said simply. "You feel this is true don't you?" She stayed back, calculating the risk, trying to decide if she should back off. Gotham, could use him, but if he was broken, he should recover right? And the girl was doing good for him. She hadn’t found Jason through a trail of bodies. Maybe he hadn’t gotten the bloodlust.
Ran off before she could help him? He whirls around and those eyes narrow on her. This strange, yet familiar, woman. Someone talking about her father and... his? The man with the sleek black car. Perhaps even the one with the wheels that... He shakes his head and those narrowed eyes narrow a bit more. "I don't know what you're talking about, lady."
"Maybe you don't belong in this place but for me, it's nice here," he tells her. "And in time I'm pretty sure I can do something useful around this place too." Though, honestly, he was already doing just that when he was helping Mira back at the garage.
"Besides, why should I trust anything you're saying? You could've very well been the cause of all of this." The young Robin wasn't elaborating on what he meant, however. She could figure that one out for herself.
"I know better than to cross him. You, were brought back to be used against him by Father. I cannot allow that and I know that if I found you others will. Friends and foe alike. There is only so much I can do to stall others." She relaxed her stance. "Would you really risk putting your Nightingale in danger?"
She had been watching long enough to tell that the girl was trying her best to help bring his memories back, and the reference amused her, it was still bird related, fitting for someone being bound to a Robin. "Or can you explain the reason you feel you need to protect? You were mentored by a knight. It is in your blood now, as much as the insanity of what was done to you will be." She added the last bit sadly. "You deserved rest. And the clown deserves to pay, yet your knight still mourns and refuses to do what must be done."
"I don't think you do," He grounds out, not even sure who in the hell her father was. Nor did he care what she could or couldn't allow. If anything he'd fight to keep Mira safe. Assuming that was who she meant when she talked about his Nightingale. He couldn't really see it being anyone else. "She's not in danger." At least not from him, at any rate. Whatever this woman was talking about was giving him a headache.
"I'll always protect others," he tells her firmly. Though he doesn't know the why behind it. "Knights are fairy tales." Like what he's seen in children’s books. The knights were those that protected those around them. Protected the lords of the land. Something that Jason knew for a fact was that he was no lord. That was for damn sure.
“
I breathe underwater
It's all in my hands
What can I do
Don't let it fall apart
A shot in the dark”
Shot in the dark - within temptation
The mention of the clown has him stepping back against the wall. Images of a laughing clown and a girl. Just as bad off as the clown. That laugh deadly and shrill. Purple and green. That big red smile. Jason puts a hand to his head and grits his teeth, "You'd do best just to go. I don't know anything about knights and clowns or anything else like that."
She gave a faint smirk at his remark. The girl did have something on him, and knowing what she did of his past, Talia wouldn't be surprised if he was drawn to her because she really was innocent, and had taken him in. Bruce might have another stray to care for if she didn't take the kid in first.
She stays where she is watching still. "I think you know that's not true. How many visions have you gotten Jason." Instead of goading this time she's concerned. She knew that it was wrong to mention Joker, but she needed to know how he'd react, to see if she could deal with the situation or if she would have to call Bruce.
"I can't do that. Not until I'm sure you know who you are. I'm sorry that it has to be this way, but I need to know you can protect yourself and others if you're found. My father made a mistake, and I will undo it if I have to." She'd destroy the pits if it kept Bruce safe, and her son... Though she kept that thought bottled up. He was safe for now, and would be safe if she accomplished what she was doing.
The young Robin's hands ball up into fists and he grits his teeth that much more. How did this woman know his name? How in the hell did she know anything about him? Was it because of the knight? Or maybe because of something else altogether. Either way, she was doing nothing but agitating the hell out of him. Upsetting him.
"You actually think I'm going to tell some strange woman anything about my visions or dreams?" He grounds out. "You can get the hell out of here. I'll go underground and take her with me." Underground was safe. Even if he's not sure exactly how it was safe, just knew that it was. Safe and hidden away from the world. Waterfalls and... bats. He's not sure what the bat signifies yet though.
He doesn't say anything for the moment and just watches her," You're the cause for all of this. You helped." He didn't trust her. Why would he?
That, looked more familiar, him angered was more predictable. "Because I see on your face you've been troubled by them. And I know from watching how they can damage a mind. You, were too young. He felt sorry because he knew what the clown would do. I found out only after the dark knight." She admitted. "I had something I needed to protect, more precious than the Knight." She thought a moment.
"Would you have her live on the run? She would wither away faster in that life than the one she has now. Though, she is young, she might be able to adjust."
"You don't know what I have or haven't been troubled with. You don't know me," he grounds out, anger clear in his voice. Almost as if nothing was amiss within his memories but it was. All of it. Fragments came and went. Some of them he remembered and others were harder to grasp a hold of. Like the knight that she kept talking about. Or whatever she had that needed to be protected more.
"If that's what it takes to keep her safe," Jason states firmly. "I will do whatever it takes to protect her. She'll do just fine." As long as he stayed by her side the whole time.
"So the visions have let you know everything? How about your mother? The Servant Alfred... Where were you before you wound up here."
"And if she doesn't feel the same way?"
"I didn't say shit about whether I knew about myself or not," Jason states firmly, growling low in his throat. "I said that YOU don't know me. I don't know who the hell Alfred is," he snaps. Though calling him servant seemed wrong somehow. Why would that seem wrong? His head was pounding even as images flooded his mind. An older gentleman shooing... the Bat out of a kitchen. Him and he's not sure how many others sitting at the table. As for his mother, he had no clue who in the hell she was. Nor did he really care to.
"Like I said before. Leave. You don't get to decide who feels what way and who doesn't feel another. She'll be fine on the run if that's what it takes," he says feeling like he was going to be sick. Whether from the anxiety or the memories that tried to break through were a whole other story.
Talia sighed, this could have gone better. It should have, back when he came out of the pit. But she had been too late to catch him.
Though seeing him turn green, she does move closer. "Shh, I know the memories hurt, but you need to fight through them." She was hoping this wouldn't be a mistake. "Please, you have to calm down. Come with me to the hotel, I can explain more. Maybe it will help. If you really wish me to leave, here." She slipped a card into his shirt pocket. "You'll come see me soon enough."
The moment she moves closer is the moment that he pulls away. He didn't want this strange woman anywhere near him. "You don't know anything," he snaps, the anger clear in his voice as he stands and straightens himself some. "I'm not going with you anywhere, lady, get that through that thick head of yours." Not when he didn't know who she was or why she'd come to this place. Other than to screw with his head.
"I said I wanted you gone and I want you gone," he tells her. "That isn't going to change."
Talia nodded. She'd leave him alone for a little while at least, for now, her father and those loyal to him were searching in the wrong place anyway. Jason should be safe for now. Though making sure Bruce didn't find him until he was ready, that was another story.
Jason stays where he's at for another ten minutes or so, making sure that the strange woman was really gone. That she wasn't about ready to turn back and try to take him wherever in the hell she was going. Though, unfortunately, he couldn't get that out of his head now. That shrill laughter.
Shaking his head he moves out of the alley and takes off at a dead run, heading back to the garage where Mira had been before. Even if something in him told him that things were off. He just didn't understand the feelings just yet. It's not until he gets to garage that he stops short and stares. Had the strange woman done this or had it done to prove some kind of point?
"Mira?" He calls out as he heads into the garage, staring at the walls. Walls that look like they wanted to cave in on him but he shakes his head, trying to focus on wherever she was.