Part 3

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The next day
Kitty sits on the floor while talking to the kwamis telepathically, Nooroo sits on the palm of her hand and Plagg sits on top of her hood. Suddenly Red Hood sits down in front of her cell. "If you want to see my face you could just ask," she says still not looking towards him. "Can I see your face?" "No," she says he doesn't respond and an awkward silence fills the room. "Red Hood, why are you here?" She asks "I'm gonna be straight with you, Batman wants me to make sure you are safe enough to be released," this catches her attention, "Sit with your back to the glass," she says. "What why?" "So I can sit back to back with you" she explains, he only nods. "Why won't you let anyone see your face? I mean if you don't exist what is the harm?" She thinks for a bit, she really thinks hard about her answer "It's a small world the fewer people who recognize me, the better, I don't need Batman or Superman checking in on me when I'm released or destroy the place out of going insane, whichever comes first" she jokes before continuing "When I'm out of here I don't want any human or non-human connections that aren't the kwamis so to avoid that you people won't get to know me. The key behind truly getting to know someone is you need to put a face to the words and actions. So with no face, I'm only a story you guys will tell, a memory lost to time. Plus we living beings only care about ourselves so the fewer living people I know the less I'll get screwed over." He thinks about what she said "You're right, except now don't tell them but I would do anything for my brothers, no matter how much I hate them. A family doesn't abandon each other, at least real family, my birth mother sold me off to the joker who ended up killing me. I died because of my birth mother, but I choose to keep living because of my adopted family. Someone who truly cares about you won't abandon you or screw you over," "I can tell you died, your aura has been tainted by the Lazarus Pit." She stops talking for a bit when she continues "Five years ago, I was still fighting HawkMoth, I was praised and loved for it, at least as a hero I was loved. In my civilian life, it was the exact opposite, I was hated and scorned for things I didn't do. Eventually, the people who hated me got to my parents, they betrayed me, I was abused every day all because of a girl with pretty lies and crocodile tears." She takes a shaky breath "Along the way I gave up and the only reason I kept living was for my responsibilities. The kwamis were the only ones standing with me, and for the fourth time in my life I realized I was all alone." He doesn't talk "and the other times?" She thinks "Not now the energy in here is too depressing" silence once again falls but now it's comfortable as she searches his aura for the boy who died, she only found bits and pieces of it and she was satisfied with that. Footsteps approach her cell "I brought her food" a voice she is unfamiliar with says. "Hey Arsenal" Red Hood calls out. Arsenal pushes the food through the food hole before sitting down next to Red Hood. "What are we talking about?" he asks "We just finished a really sad conversation maybe you can bring something else to the table?" The prisoner remarks as she grabs her food. "Ooooh let's talk about your escape plan!" He suddenly says full of excitement. This causes her to choke on her water a bit before coughing out "what are you talking about?" Even though she can't see his face she can hear his 'really' face when he continues. "Please your a super thief who only got caught by the Justice League because a small army surrounded her, so I'll ask again what was your escape plan before you found out Batman was giving you a chance?" She thinks for a moment "There are 200 people in the Watch Tower at this exact moment. My estimate says there are about 40 floors not including the dispatch area. To get out of here I would need to go up to the dispatch area which is 4 floors away, from my cell you turn left, and go up the first set of stairs, from there you go right and keep going until you reach the cafeteria. Next to the cafeteria, there is a set of stairs that takes you up the next 2 floors. Once there you take two lefts and one right in that order and you are in the dispatch room. Once there, I would take an escape pod but release all of them so I couldn't be individually tracked. But I still need to learn everyone's schedules to decide when would be the best time to make my grand escape, I would do that by sending out the kwamis to track everyone's movements for about the next two weeks before I made a move." She doesn't speak after her explanation and neither does her company, until "Holy Shit! There are 200 people in here at this exact moment!" Arsenal says voice full of excitement. "How did you do that?" Red Hood asks "everyone has an individual aura, no one is the same not even for identical twins once you can identify different auras it's easy to know how many people are in a room, and which people mean you harm," She finishes. They continue to ask her questions about how she feels auras and energies. "It comes with the magic I practice" is the answer they'd get the most, this just made them more curious but they never got a satisfying explanation. "You've asked me a bunch of questions it's my turn," she says enjoying her company "So I know Red Hood died, but why does your aura feel artificial?" She asks throwing both men off guard "I'm a clone" he answers, "being a clone isn't your fault" which is all she says before she moves the conversation along to talk about weapons, something they all enjoy. The conversation is steady but eventually, they both had to leave, leaving Kitty to her thoughts.

Kitty doesn't get many visitors but when she does it is always Red Hood and Arsenal. She enjoys their company but sometimes her mind would wander to Nightwing. She would quickly leave these thoughts behind, believing she was imagining whatever she felt when they first met. A week passes and Kitty got accustomed to Red Hood and Arsenal's company, but one day they stop showing up, and instead it's Robin. Robin was assigned the same task deem her a non-threat, he only stares at her while he visits. Kitty never stares back not wanting him to see her face. Finally one day, "what am I supposed to be looking for? You are obviously a threat, you are a thief!" He finally says after about 2 days of studying her. He makes a move to leave "And you are an assassin, you deserve to be in one of these cells way more than I do" he suddenly hears before exiting the room. He stops but doesn't make a move to turn around. "What can't handle the truth, Robin?" She taunts before continuing "You were trained by the league of assassins, probably born into it, you were a kid thrown into something you should have never been thrown into. From my point of view, we aren't that different." This makes him turn around and look at the girl who sits on her bed hood covering her face. "If you want to continue this conversation sit down back to the glass so we can sit back to back." He thinks for a bit before moving to the glass, he studies her for a bit before turning around and sitting. He hears her move to sit at his back both are unsure of how to start the conversation. "I don't see how we are similar" he states "I was trained to be an assassin prince since birth when I was taken in by Batman he forced me to change my perspective of killing, justice not vengeance. I don't see how an ex-hero turned super thief is anywhere close to that." She doesn't speak at first, she collects her thoughts "you were raised to be perfect, failure was unexpected, weaknesses were exploited constantly by those closes to you." She pauses "You weren't trusted by those who swore their loyalty to you, they betrayed you." He is too stunned to talk "Your aura says it all, you are slow to trust but very loyal." "And this makes me similar to you because?" "I was raised to be a sweet and caring little girl. To always put others before myself, my friends were to be treated with so much respect, even if I didn't get any in return. I thought I had a normal childhood, the friends I had in middle school grew up with me. We all thought we would be friends for many years after middle and high school as well. That went downhill 7 years ago, my friends who were arguably the closest people to me turned on me. Looking back I was raised to be a pushover, someone who had to be the perfect friend and daughter. I had little self-respect because I thought what I was doing was right. 7 years ago was the second time I realized I was all alone." She takes a breath "the only real difference between us is you had self-respect, you believed you were the best, I was a doormat for ungrateful feet. And as for you belonging in one of these cells, you killed, I only stole, but what the difference between us was people believed you could change, that you haven't fallen off the deep end. People don't expect me to change they believe I did fall off the deep end. They're right about me I fell off, but you, you jumped off, you fell into self-doubt just like me, you don't believe you can be Robin because of your past." She stops after that. Robin gets up and leaves but they both know he got what he was looking for. For the next week he comes in and they talk about anything, fighting techniques, where their loyalty lies, even their abnormal childhoods. They got along pretty alright.

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