Red ✔

Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE: PRECIOUS

You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve.
-Jane Austen

Every thought in Jason's mind was a chaotic mess, he had a hard time not breaking down or passing out himself, it was all just what is happening, why is it happening, why, why her, what is she doing here with him, why, why, why!

Follow every instinct in his to save his girl, his best friend and partner but give up something she was clearly willing to die for or keep this precious thing safe and risk her dying.

If he didn't do something, she was going to die.

That was fact.

Jason Todd swears on his life that Marinette is his Achilles heel.

He never thought this would happen, never thought his partner's life would be held between his and the Joker's hands. He felt cold.

Making this decision felt like a punishment, it was unfair, he was eighteen, he loved her, she made him happy in a way he didn't know he could be. Everything about her drew him in from the start, as a friend, then a partner, then something more that didn't even need to be defined. With her, the hero drops his guard. This shouldn't be happened, not to them. They took each other into their hearts no strings attached, no expectations.

He's Icarus and she's not the sun, but the ocean that catches him when he falls.

How could he lose that?

"Time's almost up," Joker smirks, hand tightening on Marinette's face -bruisingly so. "Better decide quick. Bullets are impatient."

Marinette had one job; protect people.

But she also strives to be positive and peaceful.

And she messed that up. She had one job. And she messed her goals up. The famous heroine of Paris couldn't do either of those thing right this time, not one. These are simple things, most of the time, they're for everyone's well being.

Justice wasn't on Marinette's mind.

Because she knew if the roles were reversed, if Jason was the one in the Joker's clutches and she had to give up a miraculous to save him...she would.

Yes, she would save him. Yes, she would chose him over the world. It wouldn't be right and she knew her partner wouldn't agree with it- -and hopes he doesn't do the same- -but she would do it.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng would give up the world to save Jason Todd.

It was the most selfish thing she thought she was capable of doing. She wouldn't listen to him or her team and do what they said. She'd lose respect.

So she pleads to him silently, praying to a God she doesn't believe in, for him not to decide the same thing. She shakes her head until Joker forces her to go still, she looks defeated at Duusu whose crying too.

At the moment, Jason was Atlas holding up the world.

Jack Napier found it amusing how easy worlds crumble when they think they're invincible.

The gun in Jason's hands tremored just like his hand, but he knew if The Joker thought Red Hood was honestly going to shoot him, he would have already shot Marinette.

"We'll give you them," Batman says making the decision that wasn't his to make. "Let her go first."

As he speaks, Robin and Nightwing go on either side, surrounding the supervillain on every side save for the one the car is on.