Cold-Blooded

Orion

Alias bent down to pluck a handful of jasmine flowers off the floor of her balcony, admiring the soft scent it carried and suddenly reminiscing about the moment Poison Ivy saved Gotham City. How beautiful nature looked as sparks of pollen decorated the night air. To think she would swap sides and help Batman cure the city of a virus of fear, but only save the future as thugs still ruled the streets with balled fists and reckless determination. Yeah, putting the most wanted criminals behind bars did do the trick, but what about those who were waiting to rise above the asphalt? Those willing to be put in the crosshairs? That's what Bruce didn't understand; you couldn't just throw your competition in a cell, you had to eradicate them. Maybe that's what he was talking about...

She pressed her empty hand on the marble railing and glared at the massive screen that was on the adjacent building, Bruce's unmasking being played over and over again on a painful loop. It wasn't fair. Of course, curiosity can drive a man to do crazy stuff but she never would've thought his identity would be unveiled so easily. The world's greatest detective to Gotham's kid billionaire, just like that. Alias flicked her hand and an icy knife was impaled through the screen, with a second causing the pixels to dance wildly and a third shutting the screen off completely.

"Feel better doing that? This city is already scarred, there's no hiding that." She peered off her shoulder as Red Hood walked up behind her, and she dropped her hand before turning around and almost tensed. She didn't expect him to be so close, she could practically hear the breathing that echoed about his helmet. He smelled so good. Woody and smoky, yet delicate to the senses. Just like the Arkham Knight. At least some things haven't changed. Then she pressed a hand to his chest, which made him respond by also placing a hand atop of hers, but she slipped past him to walk towards the glass doors.

"Are you not gonna tell me? Or do I have to wait for something stupid to happen?"

"Tell you what?"

"I know it's you, Jason. You can change your appearance as much as you want, but your scent and heat signature won't. It's still there...it's always there." Red Hood sighed as he turned to face her, her expression annoyed and hurt but it was subtle. As always. "Why are you being so distant with the one person who understood you? Why are you acting so selfish?"

"I'm not acting like anything. I'm just doing what Bruce could never accomplish. Just like Arkham, Gotham falls victim to the world's greatest detective and even then, he thought he could save everyone. He thought that he could stop the chaos once again but you know what they say...you can never fix a broken mirror." When he had finished talking, he had closed the gap between them again and Alias blinked away her tears, finding it difficult to look at his glassy face.

"But..." She stepped back a bit. "You never had the chance to hear how I feel."

"You're right. I'm listening. What's wrong?" He imagined the pain he would've felt when she slapped his red visor, his head slowly craning back to stare down back at her, and her cheeks reddened to her heated emotion. "Ow. Okay...I deserved that. I probably deserve more than that, but I won't push you―"

"You just leave me like that? You just think it's okay, after everything we went through, just to leave me behind? After what I've said, what I've felt, I thought...I thought I could put my life into someone's hands again, not have to keep my guard up anymore. I thought that person was you, but now I...now I don't know."

He chuckled, "I never thought you'd be so indecisive."

"I'm not indecisive, I-I'm just...confused. What, do I leave you...or love you? Do I abandon everything, or cherish the moments we had? I've always..." Alias looked up at him. "Ever since I met you, as the Arkham Knight, it was like I had seen you before, a thought from my past brought into my future. Only to find that our pieces were either lost or damaged and we have to fix ourselves together. Then I find out more about you, what you went through, why you're so...lost. The closer I wanted to get, you kept pushing me away. Then I realised, it wasn't out of anger, it was out of humility. You didn't want to hurt anybody else."