Jason Todd's Daughter

Memories and Future Dreams

        It had been two weeks since the Outlaws had broken into Poison Ivy's lab. They'd brought Arya to see Ivy twice.
         Looking back on how they were introduced to each other, Roy could only chuckle.
        Harley Quinn had been there when The Outlaws had showed up with Lil' Hoodie, much to Jason's irritation.
        Harley had instantly taken a liking to Arya claiming her as the villainous clown's goddaughter. And Arya didn't really seem to mind as far as Roy could tell.
        However Arya and Ivy didn't hit it off quite so well. Arya blamed Ivy for her current condition as well as her parents death. Meanwhile all Ivy saw Arya as was a test subject. Not a good combination.
        Roy sighed. He missed the days when things weren't so complicated and the only thing he had to worry about was taking care of baby Ari or the next job with Jason and Kory.
         Currently he was at their base staring at photos of him and Oliver Queen. He never had come to terms with his old mentor, and probably never would. But that didn't really bother the red archer, Oliver was on a different path than him.
          He didn't begrudge Jason for making amends with Batman, or Kory for getting back with Dick. But now they had fewer missions together. And with Arya dying that added a lot of extra strain on the team's bonding time.
       "We never can catch a break can we old friend?" Roy whispered to the photograph in his hand. Placing the photo back in the box he opened a different box. This one held photos of the Outlaws and their memories with Arya Todd.
        He smiled fondly at the photo of him teaching Arya how to shoot a bow and arrow. In the picture her face looked so serious. She'd had such a hard time figuring it out, but once she did, she'd mastered it in a week.
     Glancing through the others he saw so many happy memories: Kory's birthday, Arya's first baby tooth, her first knife, Jason reading Arya a bedtime story, him and Jay getting a drink at the bar (Roy wasn't sure how Koriand'r even got this picture), Kory asleep next to Arya, and so, so much more.
         Just one more box.... Roy told himself right before his eyes drifted close and he fell asleep with a picture of Chesire clutched to his chest.
      
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      "Roy!!” Kory called as she landed in the second story balcony of their base. She had picked up Harper's favorite take-out meal and was hoping to surprise him with it. "Roy?!"
        She called his name a few times, but received no response. Is he home?
         Kory placed the take-out on the kitchen counter and then began her search. She checked the living room first, then the armoury, then the bathrooms, and finally she went to Roy's bedroom which is where she located her elusive teammate.
        "Roy! Hey, just wanted to tell you that there's a sur..prise.." She began to say as she saw Roy's mop of red hair, but she stopped herself as she noticed the pictures covering his entire bed except for where he sat with his back slumped against the wall.
       Gently picking him up Kory cradled the sleeping archer in her arms as she carried him down the hall towards the guest room. His own room would take hours to reorganize and there was no way he could sleep comfortably on the bed without damaging the photographs.
        Once she reached the spare room, Kory tucked her teammate into bed, brushing his hair out of his face affectionately. Seeing his hand still had something in it, Kory pried his fist open carefully.
      Taking the photo from him Kory glanced at it and then did a double take, it was Roy with Chesire on one of those rare occasions she wasn't trying to kill him. The two looked so happy together.
        It's okay Roy. You'll find love, actual love someday, Kory smiled sadly down at the unconscious man before exiting the room to let Roy sleep in peace. I promise, you'll get over her and find someone new.....

            ***********************
   
        That's my girl, Jason smiled smugly as he watched Arya pin Tim down on the sparring mat.
        However, Dick seeing that Jason had let his guard down quickly took advantage of the situation.
        Swiping Jason's feet out from underneath him, Dick laughed at the bewildered expression on the Red Hood's face.
       Waving his eskrima sticks mockingly he taunted, "Gotta do better than that little brother."
       Jason narrowed his eyes, lunging at his brother, "Bring it on old man!"
       Ducking Jason's fist, Dick moved backwards a little so that he could catch the high kick aimed at his face, twisting the leg he sent Jason tumbling to the floor.
      "Huh, for an Old Man I can still kick ass pretty well, especially yours it seems," Dick raised an eyebrow sarcastically.
      A memory assailed Jason as he launched another attack at his sparring partner...

      "Try again!" A sixteen year old Dick laughed at Jason's attempt to catch him off guard; the two brothers had been sparring with each other for a good four hours and despite drastic improvement the nine year old still couldn't best his older brother.
     "This sucks! Why am I practicing?! Dad never lets me go on patrol with you guys anyway!" Jason fumed as he picked himself up off the mat.
      Dick nodded in sympathy he understood Jason's frustration afterall, Bruce had been the same way when Dick was Jason's age: skeptical.
     Bending down so that he was eye level with Jason Dick gave him a cheerful smile, "Don't worry JayJay! Bruce will come around! That's why we're practicing! So that you'll be ready when he does allow you to go.”

     Jason felt a spark of happiness as the memory faded out. Some things never changed.

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      "Master, I have a petition to ask of thee,” Morathena's voice echoed slightly as she knelt at the bottom of the Vampire Lord's throne., "I'd like to bring Yurio with me to help with your descendant, I believe interacting with someone his age would be beneficial to him."
      She knew she had promised Yurio that she'd take him with her on her assignment, but she wasn't stupid enough to remove the boy from the premises without Vlad's approval.
      The last time Morathena had disobeyed his command and taken a young vampire that Drakon had ordered was to stay within castle walls with her to see the spring festival, he had punished Morathena by killing the other vampire.
        But not before he had made Morathena watch as he gouged the girl's eyes out and then removed her tongue.
         It had been one hundred and fifty years.. but Morathena could still hear the girl's cries of pain.
         Forcing herself to focus at the task at hand she breathed a sigh of relief as he nodded his approval at her request.
         "Thank you," she whispered before exiting as quietly as she had come in.