ILLUSION || Jason Todd

THIRTY-SIX

❝I SAW A WORLD WITHOUT YOU THERE❞

MEGHAN TRAINOR, AFTER YOU

The return back to Titan Tower was awkwardly silent. Everyone was lodged between their thoughts and the weighing feeling of unease at the scenario that had found themselves in. If it were up to Lorelei there would be no questions asked. Rose would be handed to Deathstroke on a silver platter if that meant Jason came home.

She knew, in her bones, Dick would never let that happen.

The young mage felt stuck. She knew the cost of this lifestyle, that was an undeniable factor Bruce warned her about from day one; the risk of losing a life - your life - was something you had to become comfortable with.

And she was, on a surface level, okay with her eventual death in this line of work. The consequences of her death would be complicated and well, it wouldn't matter because Lorelei wouldn't be around for the aftermath.

What nobody prepares you for is the death of someone you care about. In almost every scenario, death is devastating. When you're at the hands of death taking someone you care for, consider family, you find yourself cowering and wishing for change; for a chance to redo everything.

Time travel, perhaps. Could Lorelei have prevented Jason from getting hurt if she were there for him? What if, instead of drowning in self pity, she went after Jason? Would he have left at all?

The butterfly effect was something Lorelei held a firm belief in. In this instance, that belief was causing a war within her mind on the possibilities where she could have, potentially, prevented his pain.

The elevator rose the quintet towards the main level of Titans Tower, each floor they progressed brought another passing question bubbling in Lorelei's mind. Was Deathstroke sitting a gun to Jason's head? Lorelei hated that thought in particular. She wasn't sure what she was more scared of at that moment; guns or losing Jason.

The elevator chime indicating they arrived on their floor seemed a lot louder on this night as the doors opened. Nobody knew what to say, especially not to Lorelei - she felt their stares, waiting for her to crack but she wouldn't; she had a Robin to save so she couldn't cry, not yet - and nobody knew their next move from the options they had.

Their footsteps clouded into the Tower, their verbal silence only ended with the shock that came when they were met with a familiar face with magenta hair. Kory was back, in the Tower, and she looked pissed. Extremely pissed. To say everyone was in shit would be an understatement.

Explaining to their Tamaram friend what they had found didn't do many favours for her anger either. She had been brought up to speed on the before, by Rachel and Garfield, and the after was met with a fury. The divides and debate over what to do was an unfortunate moment.

Whether to hand Rose over, or to not.

All Lorelei could hear was Rose or Jason. Her answer was obvious, nobody fought her on it. So the ice blonde mage wasn't included in the discussion on what to do in the first place. She was benched from the conversation, literally and figuratively as she was told to sit quietly as they talked.

And she was fine with that, sitting criss-cross a few paces away from Kory, in the training room. She was the only one of the newer Titans within the room, due to her forcing their hands to join them in the search for Jason. Rachel, Garfield, and especially Rose, were left behind as they remained in the kitchen by Dick's order.