Young Writers Society

They drove the rest of the way in silence. Alex had the radio blaring on the way to the ransom location earlier, but she didn't even reach for the dial this time around - she just kept staring down at the mask in her hands.

Jason was more focused on the road than anything else, but he kept glancing behind him in the mirror to see how Megara was doing. She was doing just as bad as he would have thought she would be doing - he hoped she'd feel comfortable crying soon, because it definitely seemed like she needed to.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the manor. There was barely any traffic, and the location they had gone to hadn't been that far away. By the time they pulled into the Batcave, the Sirens were already lounging in some of the sofas and couches James had helped him drag down last week. The cups of steaming coffee on the table confirmed his suspicion that Alfred had greeted the Sirens and brought them down into the cave himself.

As Jason stepped out of the car and Alex hopped out, the three women stared at them.

"...Is that the actual..." Hayleigh slowly said, eyes widening as Jason gave an embarrassed nod. He really wanted to hide his face behind the cowl as Sabrina slyly pulled her phone out and took a picture, but he wasn't even planning on staying in the suit.

"I'll be right back," he said. "I need to go get changed. Alex, you should probably too-"

She shook her head. "If we're rescuing people, I want to keep the Robin costume on," she said. "It's a lot more intimidating than a kid in civvies."

"Not in our world," Marciella said as she got out of the car, somehow managing to make her words sound gentle, almost sympathetic. I'm sorry honey, but you look rather silly.

Megara got out in silence and assessed the strangers. Most of them appeared as though they'd be good in a fight. The way they moved, the muscles groups they seemed to work on the most. It all pointed to her having a decent crew.

She had a crew. A group?

She closed her eyes, shook her head. They were here for a reason. To fix a mistake. Her mistake. She let this happen. If she'd have just stayed home, or remembered her training and moved around. Keep moving. A rule. She never used to break the rules.

If only she'd have abandoned this stupid longshot of a plan. If only she'd just made replicas of her armor. She didn't know how, but she could learn. That wouldn't work. Briar's voice in her head. So cynically honest about the failure of Megara's inferior planning skills.

Her whole plan wouldn't work anyway. From the start, it was a long shot taken in the dark. And now Eddie was gone.

He was being treated well. She knew that. Her father would never hurt a hostage unless his demands weren't met.

Tears again, threatening to spill. She forced them down. Buried them. Looked up.

Marciella had introduced herself. Politely, as usual, with her full title.

"Are you all aware of why you're here?" Marciella asked. Could she ever sound judgmental? Megara would like to hear that. To see the reaction of the poor soul to receive Marciella's judement.

Alex frowned at Marciella's comment - she had admittedly been looking for an excuse to keep wearing the Robin suit, but was beginning to realize that it just wasn't met to be.

"I'll be back, too," she grumbled, hurrying after Jason.

That left just the Sirens with the two girls who were practically strangers. And they really were just girls, compared to the three that stood before them - each one of them had made it to adulthood before dying, and each were adults now.

"We're mostly aware," Sabrina replied. "Jason told us that a friend's little brother had been kidnapped, but he didn't give much information besides that. I'm assuming that you're from another world?"

Hayleigh, meanwhile, immediately narrowed on who she knew had to be the friend in question - after all, why else would she be looking so upset? The girl looked like she wanted to start crying, but was trying her best to fight it. Hayleigh glanced back at Rose; her girlfriend was a lot like that, too. She never really did want to show her emotions, even when she desperately needed to.

"I'm sorry for what happened," she softly said. "I know it must be hard for you right now. But we're going to get him back, I promise. Sabrina's the best thief here in Gotham. She'll steal him back before his kidnappers even notice, and then Rose will make sure they never want to step foot in a garden again."

Rose gave a small smile from behind her. "And Hayleigh will whack them on the head a few times with her mallet."

"Of course I will," she proudly said. "Anyone who messes with kids has to go through me!"

Megara shook her head. They had a great deal of confidence, but that didn't mean much. Not with her family.

And they were her family.

And just like that, it was real.

These people were going to go to her home. What was her home. They were going to go in and rescue Eddie, and they very well may kill her family in the process. She was going to kill her family.

She couldn't breathe.

She steeled her nerves. Eddie. She had to focus on Eddie.

She shook her head again, more firmly this time, "Fight me," she said suddenly, "If you can beat me you stand a chance against my...my sister." It was hard calling her that out loud. They certainly never acted like sisters. Or maybe they did. Megara didn't know anymore.

When Jason emerged back into the main part of the Batcave with Alex in tow, he was more than a little confused by the looks that the Sirens were sharing. It seemed like they were contemplating something, and the sight of a vine slithering out of one of decorative plants in the cave didn't really help him.

"I don't think it's a good idea to fight right now," Hayleigh uneasily said. "If we're rescuing someone, we'll all need to be at our best - especially if you're the only one who can match your sister."

...Her sister?

"Your sister took Eddie?" Jason asked.

Megara glanced at him.

"I have a...complicated family," she said by way of explanation. She knew she'd have to get into it soon. There was no way these people could get into her former home, let alone get out again without getting anyone killed, without some kind of foreknowledge. Just enough. All she had to tell them was just enough.



Marciella shook her head. Megara was contemplating again. What was it about her family that had them always contemplating?

"Not exactly," Marciella spoke up. Megara gave her a look, but she ignored it. If Meg wanted to swerve to violence now, that was her problem. Marciella highly doubted she'd get very far with these people around. So, she continued, "Her father is The Count, one of the three highest members of Caedis. Meg used to be one of his two Bonded, which is a pretentious way of saying she's an assassin." Megara flinched. Marciella still ignored her. "Her sister is the other of his Bonded, and she's known for being brutal. Rumor is she was born without a conscience, but she's hardly seen in public, so I wouldn't know."

"She's a bloody sociopath," Megara growled, glaring at Marciella. Meg wasn't mad about the wording, that was for sure. "And if you call me 'Meg' again, I'm going to rip your throat out."

Okay, so she was pissed.

The group from Gotham exchanged a collective look.

"This isn't to invalidate you or anything like that," Hayleigh slowly said, "but we actually know a thing or two about fighting assassins."

"My mom has a league of them," Alex said. "I'm guessing they're probably not as deadly as you and your sister are, but they're still pretty bad and annoying. And we deal with all sorts of people, too - well, they deal with them. I'm a little..."

Alex glanced down at herself and sighed.

"...Small," she admitted.

"The most experienced one of us isn't here yet," Sabrina pointed out. "That would be James. He's been doing vigilante work since he was nine, and I think he might have taken self defense classes before-"

Someone entered the Batcave.

Jason turned to see that it was James - dressed in his Nightwing uniform. He must have just gotten back; otherwise, he would have gotten changed. "I'm sorry for being late," he said. He sounded both distracted and focus, which was a feat in itself - but not something special for him. He had been distracted a lot lately, but Jason was pretty sure he knew who the culprit was.

"Speak of the devil-" Hayleigh started to say, only to be cut off by a gust of air rushing past her. It was more like a blur accompanied by a gust, but the gust was the most tangible part of the newcomer to the Batcave.

Its owner skid to a stop.

"Hi," Wally West said. He looked around. "This has to be the most filled I've ever seen the Batcave-"

"You've been in the Batcave before?" Alex asked. "Wait, who let you in?"

"Oh, I let myself in," he said. "James told me how to get in years ago. But, anyways, that's not the point. He mentioned that you're rescuing a kid? I'm in."

Megara hardly glanced at the newcomer. She'd seen enough strange to tune it out by now. He was just another person she didn't know with abilities she couldn't fully guess.

"I'm glad you have experience with assassins," Megara said with some sarcasm, "but Caedis is not an alliance of assassins."

"No," Marciella agreed, "You're all more twisted than that."

Megara glared at her. "Briar can beat more anyone in hand-to-hand combat, but her real strength is in toxins. Just about everything she'll be using in any given fight is laced with enough different kinds of poisons and acids to make the gods weep in pain. Basically, you touch her in a fight and you're already dead as you can get. I used to have immunities to most of her stuff, save what she used for..." she shook her head, "She's had two years to change her formulas, so we can't count on that anyway."

"As I said, more twisted," Marciella said.

Megara balled her fists.

"How'd you manage to lose the kid anyway?" Marciella asked, "I thought you said you had someplace safe."

Megara let out a shaky breath, Don't kill her. Don't kill her. Don't kill her.

"Would anyone care to introduce me to the newcomer?" Megara said instead, deciding she might as well care.

"I'm Wally," he said - apparently taking it upon himself to introduce himself. "Wally West. I'm the Flash. You might have heard of me before-"

"She's from another world," James interrupted.

"...Oh," Wally said, visibly deflating just a little. "But, anyways, I'm the fastest man alive! At least in this reality. I'm sure someone's faster than me somewhere, but that somewhere isn't here."

After a moment passed, James hesitantly went over to Wally and gave him a little pat on the shoulder. Wally almost immediately straightened - he really was predictable, even as Wally instead of Charlie.

Then he turned his attention to Megara again.

It had been nearly a year since he had seen her last. That had been when Jack and him were still acting under the belief that they were the only ones like them. It had been before the fight with Jason. It had been before the Sirens, before Bruce and even before Wally.

But he could still remember meeting her just as clearly as he had when she left, and he felt a pang of worry when he realized who the missing child had to be.

"Someone took Eddie?" he asked, his voice quiet and seemingly emotionless.

She might have started crying right then. Gods knew she wanted to.

It hadn't felt so real before. It was too nightmarish. Too absolutely worst-case-scenario to be a part of her reality.

But then he said it aloud.

The illusion of hope she didn't know she'd been maintaining crumbled.

She took a shaky breath, her gaze pinned firmly to the floor.

"Not someone." She didn't want to elaborate. Not again. She hated it. She hated talking about it. Her life. Her life. The life she'd been living, the things she did, the things her family did, she never wanted to say it aloud. It was her rule, the only one she regretted breaking.

Gazes were exchanged throughout the room.

It was Jason who finally stepped forward to explain what they knew to James. He hadn't realized that Megara and him had met before, but now wasn't the time to ask about how they knew each other. "It was her family," he quietly explained. "We'll have to fight her sister to get him back."

The emotionless look faded, replaced by a look of...something on James's face. It wasn't exactly pity, and wasn't exactly sorrow, but it was clear that the revelation made things even worse.

The room fell silent.

Then Alex cleared her throat, clapping her hands together as she looked at the group assembled. For someone so little, she was easily able to draw attention in the room - the entire Gotham crew turned to look at her.

"Any good rescue attempt needs a plan," she said. "There's a lot of planning that we'll probably have to do, right? All I know is that we have our strength in numbers. It would be better if we could have more people, but we're all that's in Gotham right now - Jared and Jack are still busy out-of-state."

She turned to Megara.

"So what's the plan?" she asked.

Megara was more than glad for the distraction.

"I had a plan before, a long-game deception to get my...former employer rejected by his own people and thus destroyed by them. The idea was to get them to think that I was still working for him, drop some hints here and there that my split may be a trick on his part to get someone on the outside to start dismantling the other branches of Caedis so he could take over. If they thought that was the deal, they'd get rid of him for me and I could make a clean getaway in the chaos." She shuffled, rethinking what parts of the groundwork would be salvageable after this. "In light of these...events-" no, she wasn't going to cry. Not now. "-that's obviously not going to work. We can still use some of the groundwork I've set, though, and my equipment..."

She trailed off, taking an inventory in her head. Briar was always the planner. Megara just followed orders. Gods, they were screwed.

The group all gave various reactions to show that they understood - nods, slight changes in the glints to their eyes, or quiet "okays" muttered underneath their breaths. Everyone could sense that Megara was on the very of the breakdown. But those that knew her were worried that she wouldn't want to open up in front of strangers, and those strangers were unable to tell how she'd react to their comfort and intervention.

"We can always improvise," Jason optimistically said. He straightened a little. Megara had never really seen him in action - the only times she had seen him as a vigilante was when they first met and in the warehouse. But a little voice in the back of his head told him that she didn't really want his company right now, and was only here for the resources he had at his disposal. "We should gather our resources together and figure out a more concrete plan if we can - and maybe have dinner in the meantime?"

He glanced at the others. It was late in the day, and he knew Alex and him hadn't eaten. From Wally's enthusiastic nod, the speedster was in need of a recharge, and the other assorted members of their makeshift rescue team all looked like they agreed.

She would get mad at Jason's ability to be optimistic if she wasn't so grateful for it. The hopelessness that twisted her insides, made them stone and forced them to bend, lessened slightly with his tone and his demeanor. If he thought it could be okay, there must be some angle she wasn't seeing yet. At least, that's how she justified it.

At the prospect of food, though she nodded, she had no intention of eating. There was nothing resembling an appetite left in her.

Marciella, on the other hand, was saying, "Yes, we should eat before we do anything. The Ringly family, as despicable as they are, won't hurt the child so long as their deadline hasn't passed on getting the eldest daughter here back-" Megara flinched, "-so we have plenty of time before there is any immediate danger."

She was wrong, of course. Megara knew that Eddie, though he would be released physically unharmed, was being fed stories by now. Briar lacked a filter, and there wasn't a servant in that household who would even hesitate to give him warnings in the form of tales about all of Megara's deeds while she was in her father's employ. Whoever was left to watch him wouldn't even need to exaggerate to turn him against her.

She ducked her head and focused on fighting back tears. She wasn't going to cry here. She wasn't going to cry here. She wasn't going to cry here.

The group filtered upstairs.

Uniforms were discarded for civvies by those still wearing them, and James went to find Alfred and catch him up on everything that had occurred. Jason knew that it would be some time until dinner. Instead of lingering with the others, he decided to wander through the Wayne Manor's halls. Everyone had already begun to spread into the rooms closest to the kitchen and dining room, but Jason went to his one constant source of comfort.

He went to the library.

He wandered the aisles for a moment, lingering in one that was sufficiently hidden from the door before leaning up against the closet shelf. He closed his eyes and tried his best not to think about what had happened the last and only time he had seen Megara before this, but the memories were frustratingly fresh in his memory.

His hands went for his wrists.