JADE (young justice/robin)

epilogue. once a shadow, always a shadow

Blüdhaven
April 19, 09:22 EST
One Year Later

jade.

My phone buzzed as I taped one more swatch to the wall. "Hello?"

"What is my beautiful wife up to right now?"

"She's figuring out which paint to buy."

I could hear the bustling on Dick's end of the call. "Looking at shades of blue?"

I took a step back, seeing the light hit all three shades of blue we picked out. Next to those were three shades of green I knew he didn't like.

I never thought marriage would entail long arguments over backyard sizes, or which color to paint the walls. Then again, marriage never entered my mind until Dick randomly got on his knee six months ago. It still didn't entirely make sense when we threw together a private ceremony four months ago. Now that the ring was on my finger, my last name was different, and the light was hitting the shades of green so much nicer than the blue, I couldn't imagine myself not being married. I liked the feeling of the ring, and the sound of his name. I liked having trivial things to worry about like the color of our walls.

"And green."

"I thought we agreed on blue."

"But green looks so much better."

"What does Olly think?"

I lowered the phone to Olly, who was sat next to my feet. "Olly?"He let out a purr, before rolling onto his back for a nap. "He agrees with me."

"Traitor," Dick scoffed. "How about this? We paint the living room blue, and the bedroom can be whatever kind of green you want."

"Even dark green?"

I knew he hated the idea of dark green walls.

He let out a large sigh. "Even dark green."

"You have yourself a deal, Grayson."

"You realize you're talking to yourself too when you call me that."

I smiled. "I know... How are you feeling?" It's been a month since the news reached us from Mars, and nobody seemed to be in better shape about Conner. Dick in particular, had lost a lot of his energy. I grew extremely afraid that the pattern I saw after Wally passed would occur, but thanks to either a better relationship on our end, or the permanence of marriage, we were both handling it a lot better this time. As well as anyone who was grieving could, at least.

Within my long day of staring at paint swatches, skating, conditioning, a press conference for regaining my World Champion status, a twenty minute phone call with Darcy, and a long night of running through the city dressed as a Bat, I snuck into my own house and pulled the cowl off. Olly was already long asleep, hiding away in one of the our bedroom's corners. Dick was probably nose deep in circus training or whatever they got up to.

Meanwhile, I was standing in front of my bathroom mirror, still trying to get used to the sight of the costume. The symbol above my chest. The Batgirl identity that I'll never truly be meant for. It was only mine until one of the other girls were ready to take it on—if Red and I could ever manage to agree on who. Red thinks Orphan is the perfect candidate, strong-willed and skilled like myself. I think we should ask Spoiler to don the suit. Not necessarily because she's the better fighter, but she could better handle what the suit meant. If I knew Orphan—and trust me, I do know Orphan—well... once a Shadow, always a Shadow. Right?

The reasons I shouldn't be wearing the suit, are the same reasons why she shouldn't.

After staring myself in the mirror, I found myself doing something that's become more frequent when Dick's not home. In our closet, under a pile of clothes, was a box Dick didn't know about. Inside was my old suit, goggles and all. Wrapped up in those were notes from Shiva.