Don't Fear the Reaper

97) omg scawy

Nico didn't't tell anyone about talking to Percy. He thought about it—the conversation basically just played on repeat in his mind—but he really didn't want to discuss it or explain why he did it... so he didn't. He just silently returned Bruce's phone before sitting in an empty armchair, starring at nothing with a sort of concentration that definitely tipped the others off that something had happened, but no one asked.

They never did.

When he finally broke his silence a full hour later to ask is he could go on patrol that night, everyone seemed surprised and a little bit concerned at his sudden change, but no one questioned it. They just said yes, and life went on...

Well, it went on for a solid week, and then Nico got a minor concussion while stopping a bank robbery with Tim and Steph. Alfred immediately had him benched from patrol, even after he agreed to take some ambrosia to fix it. Apparently godly food was no substitute for time off to rest.

Nico, to his credit, was dealing with being benched decently well—or, at least, compared to Jason he was.

"This is fucking ridiculous!" Jason declared into the emptiness of the cave for the millionth time that night. "I am an adult—who is Bruce to fucking bench me? I am perfectly capable to-"

"'-To remain in control of myself, even when faced with the fuck face that killed me'—yeah, I know," Nico snarked from the center of the sparing mat where he was lying down and just staring at the ceiling. "I'm not the one you need to convince here, Jace."

"Well, you're the only one down here, so deal with it or leave."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Rant all you want, but it's not gonna change anything. Plus, Bruce kinda has a point."

"Fuck you."

Nico begrudgingly sat up and sent an annoyed look at the man. "Look, on a good day, you'd probably be fine to deal with the Joker and his fuckery, but today's not a good day. In fact, it's a bad week for you and you haven't slept in 2 days—"

"Like you've slept any more than me—"

"Oh, I've 100% slept less than you, but I'm also not complaining about being benched." Nico stood up and approached where Jason was pacing by the batcomputer. "Not only am I still vaguely concussed, but I've never dealt with Joker before and, as good of a fighter as I am, I'm not prepped to face him. I don't know how he works and anything I might do could end up putting everyone else at risk because of my inexperience."

"But I know how he works—" Jason tried to argue.

"Yeah, but you're also not in the right head space to face him," Nico said, his voice serious. "The fact that you're still ranting about that is proof enough. If you were out there, you'd be acting on emotion, and that isn't gonna help anyone."

"But-"

An alarm on the computer cut him off this time, the Oracle icon taking over the screen as Barbra's voice began projecting out of the speaker.

"This is an emergency call to any and all individuals with access to the crisis line. I repeat, this is an emergency call to any and all individuals with access to the crisis line."

Nico looked at Jason, anxiety shooting through his spine. "I thought they locked us out of comms."

"They did," Jason said, his face empty of emotion as he started at the screen, though his eyes were drowning in fear. "This is the crisis line... it's only for worst case scenarios."

"Joker's attack on Gotham Metro lines G and H were a distraction. We realized he was working with Scarecrow too late. Joker is apprehended, but explosive devised armed with Fear Toxin have gone off in Monolith Square, Miller Harbor, and the 'C' Building—"