Young Writers Society

Megara

Megara was exhausted. A full day of climbing palace walls, stealing back her old armor, and killing off guards all sneaky like, then fairling to be quite sneaky enough and having to jump out a second-floor window would do that.

But she could go home now, and she did. Non-descript beige cloak draped over her shoulders, concealing the satchel at her side, hood pulled low over her face, back hunched over to make the best use of her cane as a part of her disguise, and she was as unrecognizable as she was going to get from the energetic little troublemaker who killed several guards and broke into the Ringly manor again today. No, she was nobody a the moment. A passing traveler, nothing more.

She reached the fortress as she always did and slipped inside the hidden entrance with no one around to bear witness.

She dodged around the jutting stone and slid inside the one unblocked area of what was going to be a glorious mountain fortress, and felt something. A distinct wrongness in the air.

She was still.

She listened.

She didn't hear anything.

She didn't hear anything.

Her breath hitched and she ran, ignoring the pain as through some feat of adrenalin she didn't fall as she dashed from room to room. Empty, empty, emp- No. Eddie's room wasn't empty.

On the little child-sized bed where Eddie should be, playing with his toys or taking one of his impromptu naps, was instead an envelope.

She approached it slowly, like it was a wild animal that might attack if she made any sudden movements.

She took it gingerly in her hands, and looked at the seal.

Her grip tightened on the envelope as a wave of some mix of horrible emotions washed over her, filled her up, stiffened her spine and hardened her gaze.

She broke the seal - a sparrow clinging to a peacock feather mid-flight - and pulled the letter out.

Her jaw grew tighter and tighter as she read its contents. Over and over her eyes scanned the words until she thought she might shatter her own teeth in her silent white-knuckled rage.



It wasn't signed, but her father's neat handwriting was unmistakable.

Her face was expressionless as she turned on her heel and walked, painfully hiding her limp, to where she'd dropped her cane. She picked it up, as dutifully and carefully as was possible, and straightened.

The letter was still in her hand, held gingerly between her fingers. She wanted to tear it apart. To rip it to pieces and then tear it up again, then to take apart the pen that wrote it. To smash the ink bottle against the wall and shatter the pen. To break the bones in the fingers that penned the words one by one and to use her knives and her training to make the writer's death so much slower and more miserable than any death she'd dealt before.

But she held the letter carefully. She walked calmly into her room and placed her satchel on the bed. She took the armor from inside, flexible, thin and strong, and shed her cloak.

With meticulously practiced movements and a calm, stony exterior, she dawned her old armor. With patience that did nothing to telegraph her rage, she placed objects into her satchel and slung it around her shoulders.

The only hesitation she showed before she left the cold, empty place that was usually home, was just before she left her room.

She halted, the wheels in her head turning, and stared at something draped on the back of the chair that was only used for draping things on. She almost left without it. Then she retraced the step she'd taken out the door and grabbed it.

She carefully folded the worn leather jacket and added it to her satchel.

The next hour was spent getting into another place she wasn't meant to be.

Once inside the university, Megara made her way quickly to the dorm room of one mer in particular.

The room wasn't very large, and every inch of space was filled. The walls no longer seemed to exist, it was just shelves upon shelves of books and a single row of medium-sized chests to hold all of the resident's belongings. The bed was the floor, covered in soft layers of algae, and even that had been all but overtaken by scrolls and books.

The resident herself was near the top of the room, treading water at one of the topmost shelves as she pulled out scrolls and occasionally dropped one down to float to the bed below.

It was a moment before Megara was noticed.

Marciella, the mermaid who had been quite content to pick out her scrolls, got a mask of her own when she saw Megara standing in her doorway.

"Meg," she greeted stiffly.

"Ciel," Meg responded with a curt dip of her head.

"You've come for another favor."

"Yes."

"It wasn't a question."

They stared at each other.

"I need to get to Gotham," Megara said finally.

Marciella swam down to face her, "What do you have to blackmail me this time?"

"Nothing."

"Hm." Marciella looked her over in that way that Marciella did. Like she could see her very soul under all the lies.

"Alright," she said finally, "You remember how to set it up?"

"Yes."

They both nodded their mutual understanding and went in opposite directions, Marciella to get supplies from elsewhere in the university, Megara to use the materials Ciel had in her chests to begin preparations for the spell.

Soon enough, everything was ready.

Marciella went into the center of the rune-ringed circle and spread her arms, her eyes closed. She started out quiet, her voice barely a hum in the water as she began chanting but growing in volume as she went on. The runes glowed, casting strange shadows about the room with their pale blue light.

Megara stepped into the circle and there was a flash.

There were a few seconds of incomprehensible mixes of contradictory sensations, hot and cold, light and dark, absolute silence and all the sound in the world surrounded her on all sides, pressed into her, made it hard to breathe or think. She thought she might go insane if she stayed there.

Then she was somewhere familiar. It was dark, but it always seemed to be dark here, day or night.

It was then that she saw Marciella, leaning against the front of some dark building beside them with her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose, her eyes closed.

Megara should have gotten angry about her tagging along. Instead, she ducked her head, pulled out Jason's jacket, and put it on.

"This way," was all she said before turning abruptly and beginning the walk toward her allies.

Marciella knew better than to say anything.

Jason Todd

"This is your fault," Alex said, with all of the confidence of someone who knew who the actual one responsible was. All Jason could do was stare into the spinning, oncoming weapon and think about what had led them to this point.

Alex, to some extent, was right. He was the one who had figured out what they were going to do, and should have probably figured out that this was a trap, but it had been Alex's idea to masquerade as Batman and Robin in the first place! Sure, Bruce and Tim were both out of town, but they didn't have to come as then. Red Hood would have done perfectly fine on his own.

...But then the criminals probably wouldn't have let their hostages go, so it wasn't like they had much of a choice.

But, still, it was more than a little rude of her to be blaming him when she was just as responsible.

"It was your idea to actually meet their demands," he hissed, keeping his voice low and almost a little raspy - just how Batman was supposed to sound, and not at all like the teenage boy that was actually hiding underneath the cowl. "Not mine."

"You're the more experienced one," Alex said.

"It's not like people usually ask for me for ransoms!" he shot back, exasperated. Alex and him usually got along pretty good, but the thought of dying for a third time really wasn't that appealing. "We just have to figure out how to get out of these top ropes, and then we could duck out of the way."

"Easier said than done," Alex said. "Our hands are tied up. And unless you secretly have superpowers, we're not getting out of these without them."

He tapped the floor with his foot. "Is Nightwing on his way?"

"He sent a text before this saying he was caught up and wouldn't get here for another hour." Alex paused. "That was thirty minutes ago."

Jason groaned. "And I thought the crowbar was bad."

"I knew death would come eventually," Alex said, "but I never knew it'd be like this."

Megara only made it a few steps before Marciella called after her, "Wait! There's someone inside here."

When Megara turned, Ciel was peering inside one of the newspaper-covered windows. Shew as about to tell her to just move on, that they were in a hurry and there was more crime here than there was in Kroy, when Ciel muttered a spell and slipped into the building through the now-unlocked door.

Megara sighed. We don't have time for this, she would have said if she wasn't following Ciel inside.

Ciel was hiding in the shadows, observing the scene before her.

Megara was rolling her eyes.

Batman and Robin. They weren't Jason, but they were close enough. She could use all the allies she could get.

She walked up to them, burying her fear and fury to give them a skeptical look. "Hello boys," she greeted them.

His eyes widened behind the cowl.

Megara?

"If you're here to hurt us more," Alex said, "you shouldn't do it. He's Batman, I'm Robin, and Nightwing's on his way-"

She paused, joining Jason in staring at the two girls standing near them. He could hear her squirming a little against her bonds, and could see a little bit of her head as she tried to glance between Jason and Megara.

Jason took the opportunity to get Megara's attention.

"Megara," he said, still using the Batman voice out of both the need to keep him not really being Batman secret from any villains who might have been listening in and just forgetting to use his regular voice, "please get us out of these ropes."

"...Is that the Red Hood jacket?" Alex finally asked.

He blinked, gaze dropping down to the jacket in question.

So that was what happened to the jacket he had lost! He must have left it in her-

No, now was not the time to be have epiphanies. He needed to get Alex and him out of here, and Megara was their only shot right now. "It doesn't matter if it is," he said, dismissing the comment with his own. "We need to get out. Please, Megara? We're about to get killed, and I don't really want to die-"

"...Are you his girlfriend or something?" Alex interrupted.

He nudged Alex with his elbow.

"You must be his girlfriend," she said, with more conviction than before, "or else the dark knight wouldn't be getting so flustered."

He nudged her harder than before, just enough for her to give a startled yelp and try to jerk a little away from the elbow in question - not that she could when they were tied up.

"Red Hood doesn't date anyone, Robin," he hissed.

Ciel looked amused, "I wasn't aware you were courting anyone, Meg."

Megara shot her a warning look and knelt next to the tied up pair of heroes. She slid a throwing knife out of the sheath on her thigh and started cutting through the ropes.

"Where's the Red Hood?" she asked, her tone firm enough to make it clear she wasn't in the mood for games.

Ciel gave her a worried look and Megara was reminded that she didn't know what was going on.

Jason stiffened when he heard the tone in her voice - he couldn't answer the question right now, given that he was supposed to be Batman, but he could tell that she was going to get dangerous if she didn't get the answer she was looking for.

"Red Hood can't really come to the phone right now," Alex said from her seat, a certain tone to her voice that hinted at the hidden meaning behind her comment. "He's a little tied up with someone."

"What Robin said," Jason wisely agreed.

Megara arched an eyebrow at that. She'd heard better coverups from Briar, and, for all her sister was, she couldn't lie for shit.

So Jason had borrowed the Batman suit for whatever reason. She didn't much care. She just finished untying them and helped Jason to his feet. He'd gotten taller, the bastard, and she had to look up to look him in the eye. Not that she didn't have to look up before then.

"Let's go," she said after a pause and turned to leave.

"She must really be Red Hood's girlfriend," Alex commented, rubbing her wrists as she joined Jason. "It's the only way you'd let her boss you around."

In response, he decided to switch the nudge with his elbow to a nudge with his boot into her leg. She gave another little yelp in surprise, but fell silent when Jason joined Megara near the exit.

"Thanks," he said, giving her a smile - it was the only part of his visible underneath the suit's cowl.

Megara didn't respond. She just glanced at him and stepped outside, once again resuming her walk toward the manor. She didn't want to talk to him. If she did, she thought she might start crying.

Marciella, meanwhile, fell into step beside Alex, "She's upset," she said carefully, keeping her voice down in hope that Megara wouldn't hear, "I don't think your joking will help."

A sinking feeling appeared in his gut.

Something was wrong. Megara wasn't talking, and he knew it wasn't because she was angry at him or Alex. This was something else. And when he looked around, he discovered that there was just one other person with her.

And that person wasn't Eddie.

He looked over at her, understanding dawning on him. Something must have happened to him. It still wasn't anger. He wasn't dead. But it was still bad enough for Megara to be silent, and that was worrying enough for him.


Alex looked at the back of the girl in front of her - Megara, right? - and tried to wrap her head around what was being said. She might have seemed like she wasn't even a teenager, but she got people. It made sense, when she thought about it.

"Okay," she said.

Crossing her arms, she looked at the back of Jason instead. He definitely was going to have some explaining to do, once they-

Wait a second.

They couldn't bring two strangers back to the Batcave, even if one of them had his coat! She unfolded her arms and marched up in front of Jason. Turning so she was walking backwards, she recrossed her arms and looked up at all of the annoyingly six foot tall Jason Todd.

"Batman," she said, giving a look, "where are we going?"

"The Batcave," Jason replied, an absentminded tone to his voice.

"The Batcave?" she repeated.

He nodded.

"Also known as the super secret place we're not supposed to show random strangers?" Alex added. "Please tell me you have something to cover their eyes."

There was a pause. "No."

She threw her hands up in exasperation.

"And Megara's not a random stranger," Jason corrected. "She's my friend."

"That doesn't make it any better!" Alex shot back.

He crossed his arms. "I'm taking them to the Batcave."

"You're a terrible Batman."

Megara looked Robin over. She closed her eyes, then grabbed Jason by the wrist, stopping him.

When she opened her eyes, she kept her gaze down to hide the tears that shouldn't be there. That couldn't be there. Tears wouldn't help Eddie. Tears wouldn't keep him alive.

She slipped a hand into her satchel and pulled out the neatly folded letter. She turned to Jason, eyes still on the pavement, and pressed the letter against his chest. "It was on Eddie's bed," she murmured.

She might as well tell him now. Robin wasn't going to be convinced to allow strangers into their home base, especially without explanation. So he could read the letter. He could understand why she needed him, and anyone else here who would help.

Jason read the letter.

Alex didn't try snatching it from his hands like she normally would have - it seemed like she could read the mood from Megara's tone. When he finally finished reading it, he handed it off to Alex. He had never told her about his accidental trip to another world. It was something little Damian Wayne wasn't supposed to know about, and something that he had forgotten to share with the other members of their strange, makeshift family once he had discovered the truth about them.

Alex's posture softened as she wordlessly handed it back to Jason, falling into step beside him instead of in front of him.

"I'll text Nightwing," she said. "He needs to know that we're safe, and I think he'll be the best help we can get right now."

Jason nodded. "I'll get the Sirens," he added. "Catwoman and Harley are both good fighters on their own, and Ivy's powers might take them by surprise. I'll tell them to meet us up at the Batcave."

"I'll call Alfred and let him know that we're all coming," Alex added. The two of them pulled out their respective phones and started texting - even before they could really offer an explanation to the other two about who they were reaching out to.

Megara blinked. "Who are you contacting?" she asked. She was on the verge of tears and getting worse at hiding it.

Marciella gave Megara a worried look. The assassin wasn't known for handling strong emotions well, case and point, every crime ever listed on any of her wanted posters. Ciel had no idea how to calm her, but Megara needed to be calmed quickly if they didn't want things to get unpredictable.

Jason also gave Megara a worried look, but it was for a completely different reason - seeing her emotional over Eddie being taken made him feel just as worried as she had to be feeling. He was just a kid. Who knew what was being done to him right now? He had to do everything he could to rescue him, and to make sure he was safe with Megara again.

There wasn't any other options.

But before they could give any explanations, they needed to get back to the manor.

The car, thankfully, was exactly where he remembered parking it. Jason Todd was just barely old enough to drive, but he was currently playing the part of Batman - and he had been a great driver before he died the first time.

He slipped inside of the car, Alex popping into the driver's side seat despite being too small to in most cars. Once Megara and Marciella were in the back seats with the doors shut, Alex and Jason took off their respective disguises - for Jason, it was taking off the cowl, and, for Alex, it was taking off her domino mask.

"Sorry about that," Jason said. "No one can see or hear us in here, so I wanted to get back in the car before I told you who we were contacting. That's Alex, by the way - I, er, thought her name was Damian for awhile."

Alex poked her head around the seat and gave a wave in greeting to the two girls. "It's a long story," she said, a sheepish grin dancing across her lips. She didn't elaborate anymore; neither did Jason. Now wasn't the time.

"Nightwing's my older brother," Jason said. "His real name is-Well, it's complicated, but it's James. He goes by Dick. He's a vigilante like I am, and he's been doing it longer. If we're rescuing Eddie, we'll want him."

"The Sirens are technically criminals," Alex explaining, leaning back in her seat and spinning her mask around her finger as Jason started up the car. "They go by the names Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy. Their real names are Hayleigh, Sabrina and Rose. They lowkey adopted Jason and I, and Hayleigh impulsively tries protecting kids, so they'd be happy to help."

There was a pause.

"...And Alfred's the family butler," Alex added. "He won't really be able to help us, but it would be rude to show up with a bunch of people without warning."

Megara listened as she pulled Jason's jacket tighter around her shoulders. Don't fucking cry, she reminded herself. It wasn't helping.

Marciella shook her head, "How do we know we can trust-" Megara's knife at her neck cut her off. A beat passed, and Megara put her blade away, not looking at anyone in particular as she did.

The message was rather clear to Ciel. Questioning them is questioning me. Marciella didn't question Meg. The same way one didn't tell an angry guard dog to sit.