ILLUSION || Jason Todd

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❝SEE YOUR FACE

HEAR MY VOICE IN THE DARK❞

TAYLOR SWIFT, I WISH YOU WOULD

Jason perched against a chair, his hands duct taped down to the arms with no room to escape was all Lorelei could see. Since she arrived, which was not too long ago, Jason had remained unconscious. The sight was worrying as the young Archmage kept hidden in nearby shadows, her projected body hanging against the walls within the room Jason was in; just close enough to stand inside the wall if need be.

Crane was nearby, working on something on the laptop resting on the surface just a few steps away from Jason. Lorelei tried to focus on Jason, her eye only occasionally wandering to the man with an unhidden glare towards the uncanny ghost of her past.

"Fuck you, Crane." Jason's earlier words kept circling within her mind. If he held such aggressions to Scarecrow, why did he come back? She wondered, her eyes trailing back to the duct tape tied tightly around his wrists. He wasn't staying by choice - but this wasn't a thing Crane had predicted. Jonathan knew better than to use something like duct tape, it was too 'cheap' of a move. Jonathan Crane was sophisticated in his own fucked up way.

It wasn't like she could find any answers to her questions - her answers rested in context clues and filling gaps. She didn't want to expose herself, not yet. If Jason was still Jason, he would be investigating her earlier slip up, bringing attention to herself would be more than irresponsible. But did she care? Her heart rate spiked as Crane walked closer to Jason, the noir haired boy stirring awake against the taps landing on his cheek. Maybe she didn't care if she had to save Jason. Her choice was obvious - it would always be Jason.

"I pity you, Jason." Jonathan Crane tutted, the first words Lorelei had heard him speak in years - his face closer to Jason than she wished before he stood up, towering over the sitting Red Hood. "You were reckless, and you were impatient last night and you acted out of fear, not out of strength."

The Scarecrow continued to ramble on, his words bringing an unwanted chill down Lorelei's spine. She didn't want to be here, her lips pursed as her hands moved behind her back, the limbs shaking as Scarecrow moved around the room they were in.

It was a lot easier to be here, watching Jason and glancing at Crane when he was mostly still and quiet. Lorelei had always preferred him as such, the studious demeanour he held when intensely focused on something. He was more predictable in those moments, the grasp for chaos and fear falling to the side just momentarily. In those moments, he was nothing but a scientist - a doctor at work. Not an A-list psychotic Gotham rogue. Not the man that helped ruin Lorelei's life.

"You see, you're still afraid of Dick Grayson. And I failed you. I failed you as a teacher. But here's today's lesson. You know how I broke Batman?" Crane continued, the young mage keeping a stare on his footsteps as she inhaled his words. Scarecrow didn't break Bruce, the Joker killing Jason broke Bruce; was he part of that too? Was his death a fucking set up? "It wasn't with fear, it was with patience. I'm going to show you that you don't need to go running around Gotham, trying to destroy the Titans."

Destroy the Titans? Her head perked up, twisting to watch Jason's hazy stare circle around Scarecrow as he shifted towards the laptop he previously held an intense focus towards. "You can just sit back and watch as the Titans destroy themselves."

Something big was coming, Lorelei's gut swarmed bees with the red of her intuition. What was coming? Her wonder was answered quickly as Scarecrow gave enough for Jason to understand. He had hacked into the illegal GCPD device, the one Dick needed.