Got Your Back, Always

III.XXX

Jason fires a couple shots into the air. "That's right, motherfuckers! The Hood is back! Nightwing is gone and this is the thanks you give me?"

"Jason... it's okay," Dick walks up behind him. "It's me."

Cassie walked out from behind Jason, making herself known. She wanted to place herself inbetween the two in case things got bad.

"What the fuck? Don't do this to me. I saw you die. Right here."

"I was in the Pit. Like you, I came out alive."

"The Pit? Who took you there?"

"Bats," Cassie whispered.

"I don't know. Gar and Rachel were there when I came out. We don't have time. I need your help."

"You want me to help you? I'm a fucking murderer."

"You know how Crane is operating. You know how he thinks. He needs to be stopped or a lot more people are gonna die."

"We've talked about this Jason, remember? Don't let him manipulate you. His insanity is his alone, don't let it get to you," Cassie took a step forward. "Remember how I asked for your help? Your help taking Crane down? This is that help."

"You want redemption? Do you? This is the first step."

"You can't stop him. He's got everything. The police, the Batcave. He's gonna take the whole fucking city down."

"How?"

"You think I know? He doesn't tell me shit."

"He must have said something. Think."

"It was all crazy shit. 'Like waves of anger and fear. The bright and darkened lands of the Earth.' Something about an attack you and Bruce stopped a long time ago."

Dick and Cassie made eye contact, she says, "Shit. Of course."

"Years ago, Crane sent a poem to Jim Gordon with clues about an attack on Gotham. A chain of explosives to release his fear toxin. We stopped him before he had a chance to set it off. Bruce took Crane's weapons and put them in the Gotham Armory to study them."

"And Crane's in the batcave. So he knows where those weapons are."

"Dammit, I thought I scrambled that information," Cassie sighed to herself.

Dick holds up Jason's hood, "And so do we now. We need to go."

Jason puts his gun away, "So, I'm a Titan again?"

"No, you'll never be a Titan again. But you can help us save Gotham."

Jason takes his helmet, "How do I know you're not going to kill me?"

"Because now I know what it's like to die. And plus I wouldn't be the one to kill you, you'd have to worry about this one over here."

Cassie just made eye contact with Jason, letting him know Dick wasn't kidding.

Jason just nodded, getting the idea.

They head into the armory after Jason blows the door off. The alarm goes off.

"Let's go," Dick leads the way.

They pass several different villains' toys. They open the safe that had Crane's things.

"I don't get it," Jason says. "There's supposed to be like, 200 ampules. What the fuck is that?"

Cassie groaned and ran a hand through her hair.

Dick grabs the poem book and reads, "Bright and darkened lands of the Earth."

"What are you talking about?"

"Crane's poem. His war on Gotham."

"Fuck."

Cassie looked around the room, trying to see if anything would be useful, unfortunately, the room was cleared out of the items she was looking for.