Nightwing: Heartache

Part 13: Fundraiser

June 27, 9:02pm
Hollywood

Willa wasn't a fan of Lex Luthor. She knew about his involvement with the Light and his super-villain tendencies, but even if she didn't know all that, she probably wouldn't like him. A white guy monopolizing industries and squeezing out small businesses? No thank-you. But he did have a lot of money and power right now, so when Lex Luthor threw a fundraiser on a cause you championed, you showed up.

Garfield was doing so well with this whole night, if Willa didn't know the history between the Team and Luthor, she would never guess that Gar was cursing Lex at every turn. He was smiling, shaking hands, and thanking people for their support. Because of Garfield's passion for the cause, meta-teen trafficking had seen a huge spike of online presence, safety PSAs and donations to organizations like the Justice League who were committed to finding missing kids.

Tomorrow the news cycle would be filled with images of Gar instead of Lex and that was a win in Willa's book. She excused herself from her current conversation to take a call from Sam, giving the go ahead to finalize scheduling for Shadowblaster filming. Two and a half-months plus a month press tour. All in all it wasn't bad, Legend and Prodigy took four months to film but Willa also had more stunt sequences in those movies.

She got off the phone and leaned against the wall in a quieter area of the ballroom, scrolling through Instagram for a few minutes before rejoining the party. She liked and commented on a few of her friends' posts, Ryder's most recent, and a couple of her co-star and best friend from Legend, Evan's posts.

"Not enjoying my party?" A smooth voice asked.

Willa whipped her head up, surprised because she didn't hear anyone walk up. But now Lex Luthor was right in front of her, smiling a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"It's lovely, Mr. Luthor," she answered diplomatically, "so great for you to help out a great cause."

"Yes, I try to do my part."

Willa internally scoffed, he was probably part of the reason it was happening in the first place. At least she could drink his booze and take his money tonight.

"But it seems like things are looking up. More and more trafficking rings are busted everyday," Lex went on. His tone was cheery but Willa wasn't convinced he was actually happy about it. "From what I've heard, Nightwing is leading the attacks."

Willa tensed involuntarily but tried to cover it, "good for him." She actually hadn't seen or heard anything about it. She hadn't seen or heard much about Nightwing in a while actually. It didn't seem like he was as public as a few years ago.

"You know," Lex continued while Willa looked for a polite way to exit this conversation, "I was going through old LexCorp files and found the silliest little video." Willa didn't answer, instead taking a step to the side but Lex matched her. "It was a video of you from several years ago," he let out a chuckle, "and this sounds ridiculous, but it was you jumping off of my tower in Metropolis."

Willa flashed a smile, "that is silly." She remembered that day like it was yesterday.

"Yes, the crazy things we do. It would be a shame if that got out."

Willa cut her gaze back to the bald man in front of her. She didn't like being blackmailed, especially not into whatever it was he wanted. "Yes, it would. It wouldn't look good for a public figure to so publicly expose a celebrity's mental health issues like that." She smiled sweetly at the shocked look on his face. "And it would give heroes some great PR when people saw them save me."

Lex ground his teeth, frustrated at the spin Willa would put on the video. He wouldn't win the media and he knew it. By framing it as a thwarted suicide attempt, the public would condemn Lex for exposing it and applaud heroes for saving her. Willa would publicly thank them and make a statement about her journey. It might actually be good for her. Publicly at least. She leaned in a little closer, "and people definitely wouldn't be happy if I let slip what I saw in your tower."

He looked like he wanted to throttle her right there in public. She wished she could take a picture of his expression and post it online, or at least send it to Superman. She had never seen Lex Luthor look so troubled. She took another step to go around him but he matched her again, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

"It is funny, how our past can come back to haunt us," he said. Willa fought the urge to shove him away from her. "How our pasts can still hurt us, if we aren't careful." Now Willa did shove him back. He only stepped back a foot but it was enough for Willa to get around him.

She gasped when Garfield appeared beside her, shifting from a fly back to his human form.

"Is that a threat, Mr. Luthor?" Garfield asked, his voice low.

Lex laughed and held up his hands in a surrender gesture, "no, of course not. I just found a fun video. Have a wonderful night, Ms. Opal. I can't tell you how happy I am to be financing your new movie. Seems like we'll be seeing more of each other these next months. Say hello to your boyfriend for me, will you?" Then he walked away, back to the cool businessman, hand in his pocket.

"Are you okay?" Garfield asked Willa.

"I'm fine," Willa waved off his concern.

"Willa, he just threatened you-"

"Don't be dramatic, Gar," Willa said as she made her way back to the party, "it's just Hollywood politics."

He caught up to her a second later. "Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked, obviously still thinking about Lex and her's interaction.

Willa sighed and looked away, "no."