The Batpoint Paradox

Lazarus Love Letters

*Tim

To give Dick and Wally some much needed privacy the four of us, minus one irate former assassin child (passive aggressively lurk in the hallway) decide to loiter in the back of a nearby coffee shop. Kon had outrageously tried to carry me into said cafe, said public cafe, yeah no- and even worse, he attempted to keep me from getting my usual 8 shot espresso oat milk late...It was only the knowledge that punching his stupid, pretty face would only actually hurt me, that kept me from physically attacking the man. Thankfully Cassie came to my rescue, having balked only slightly at the number of espresso shots I had requested.
"More espresso, less depresso." I explain sagely.
The Amazon bites back an amused snort but says nothing as she hands over the giant, steaming beverage.
The second the heavenly nectar reaches my greedy hands I immediately bring it to my lips, wasting no time inhaling the precious live giving caffeine.

"Sweet Hera," Cassie breathes in awe as I deposit the now empty cup on the table seconds later, "I can't decide if I'm throughly impressed, or deeply concerned."

Bart nods quickly, comically large eyes darting between my face and the empty cup.
"Right! Dude that had to be scaldingly hot, and you just chugged it like it was ice water, how??"
Kon just looks at me with a pinched expression on his face as he regards my content and satisfied face.
"That cannot be good for you." He remarks, shaking his head and letting out a long suffer sigh.
I grin widely at my friends, a happy little giggle escaping from my lips. It's nice to know that even in this crazy bassackwards timeline, at least one thing remains a constant.
Kon raises an eyebrow,
"What's so funny Red?" Kon questions me, seemingly not noticing he'd called me by a nickname he'd never used in this timeline. I decide not to mention it though, instead choosing just to answer his question and ignore the conflicting emotions stirred up by the little reminder of the relationship he and I actually have underneath his false memories.

Shaking my head lightly to pull myself from the sad, shameful thought spiral I was teetering on, I force myself to maintain my bright smile as I answer Kon's question.

"Nothing really, I just think it's pretty funny that as different as everything here is, one of the few things that's unchanged is you guys ganging up on me and my caffeine intake." I let out an indignant huff and cross my arms.

"Not all of us have super powers you know, some of us are just regular, ungifted humans, with regular, human limitations..Kicking ass and saving the world all the damn time, with nothing but some gadgets and my own wits can be exhausting. Hmph. So excuse all of you, but I believe I've more than earned a little caffeinated pick me up."

It's dead silent for a few heartbeats after my little tirade, but then all at once, they all start cracking up, and it's so nice that I have to really work at keeping my petulant expression in place.

The moment is abruptly ruined though when a frantic, wide-eyed Jason Todd comes barreling in from the street, an expression of such panic on his face that I instantly feel my whole body go into high alert.

He spots us almost immediately, briefly meeting my gaze but otherwise waisting no time with pleasantries.

"She has Lian. That crazy bitch took my daughter- I swear to god if she has hurt so much as a single hair on my baby girl's head I am going to bash her deranged fucking head in with a crowbar- then I'm gonna drop her in her father's rank ass magical, demonic bathwater so I can kill her psychotic, child-murdering ass all over again."

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, feeling a massive headache building in my temples.

"Jason, we've been over this, no matter how much she sucks, we're not killing Talia, Bruce or no Bruce, we don't kill. Besides this is likely the exact reaction she was hoping to provoke from you, I'd bet she knows that we've found her out, and now that we know how she did it, she knows it's only a matter of time before we manage to fix it." I say out loud, but even as I'm speaking my brain is going a million miles a minute, calculating all the possible scenarios trying to pinpoint what exactly Talia's trying to pull by taking Lian.