Cold-Blooded

Chaos

"And then there were three..." he commented to himself as his target vanished from the digital map before him. The other three were scattered across the map, in different locations in neighbouring cities. To his left was a cylinder compartment home to his suit, patterned accordingly and coloured black and navy. To his right was a board with five names, five profiles and a range of images linked to the corresponding names.

Blakelyn Mercer: ice merc. Jason Todd: Red Hood. Rex Downey: mute telepath. Taeyeon Sinclair: Alias's downfall. Rhys Sinclair: Taeyeon's swords.

"Oh, don't worry, ice queen," he smirked as he slowly crossed his arms. "I got your back."

***

"This is what they were hiding," Alias told her, the Shard of Arcadius floating in her palm. Even though she'd absorbed all there was to take, it was still glowing its warm sunny hue as if its light couldn't be vanquished by the likes of the Meta. "The moment I saw it, I knew what to do. It was instinctive. To think Syndicate would hide my powers away in these."

"Don't forget you're housing a god," Kyle informed her. "Sinclair knew Arcadius's full extent and limited his strength; what you're holding was a cache to fuel Arcadius's lost power."

"So even Arcadius was broken? He was kind enough to help me develop my powers but regeneration and stopping time via cryokinesis is approaching the realms of overkill."

"Arcadius is a God of War, after all. Wouldn't necessarily call it overkill if he was created to fight wars. But how are you holding up? Has all your memories finally sunken in?"

"Not all of them, no. There's still a few blurry ones, I don't know who brought me back or who paid me to take out Jason. Thinking back, it brings a subconscious fear to my heart and a dread to my stomach."

"You followed your heart, and Syndicate wasn't around to punish you this time around. You have to remember: you are no longer bound by their ties even if they still exist. Your main purpose is to eradicate them, not fall under their spell."

"That's easier said than done, Sinclair is everywhere."

"But he won't chase you. He's never been a chaser, only the game master moving his chess pieces."

"As he does...but where's Morpheus?"

"We're not prisoners here, Blake. He went to visit someone in Malaysia." Kyle frowned suddenly. "You look troubled."

"It's Jason. I'm worried because...it's his scars. He constantly refuses to let me heal them. I don't have a problem with them, in fact it makes him look incredibly handsome, but the memories are enough to tear his mind apart...I know he's hiding more than he's showing. The burn scar on his face is one of many."

"Jason's not ready for you to see his past, Blakelyn, and you should be accepting of the fact that he shows you the few. His year-long hiatus with Joker was unbearable to witness but those scars hurt more than the wounds that caused them. Jason is a man of emotion and he isn't afraid of expressing it, and he trusts you more than you realise. When you ask about his scars, be careful with your choice of words. You don't want to lose him again."

Alias lowered her head in acceptance before melting out of reality, and she opened her eyes with the empty Shard in her lap and the sun that peeked through the windows glowing against her skin. They were in Old Gotham after she felt the resonation of their second target while on their quick flight here, the master suite in the sorta-but-not-quite restored Gotham Royal Hotel hand-picked by Rex and paid for by Alias; all those expenses on her meant she was pretty much stacking, more than Jason realised. But unlike the men, she wasn't used to flying and slept the moment she got here, but with her strength back she couldn't help but wonder what her memories were trying to point out to her.