Black Dahlia || Dick Grayson [Titans] ✔️

IMPOSSIBLE

It was weird seeing Bruce Wayne again, after all these years, even if it was through a computer screen. Seeing him enlarged on the main screen made me feel as though Bruce was actually in the room with us. When I first found out he was Batman, I had to admit, I didn't believe it. How could Gotham's richest bachelor think his time was best spent fighting the city's demons?

And then it hit me: why wouldn't he?

He was the richest man around, with more money than any one person could know what to do with. Aside from when business called for it, the man was a social recluse which meant he didn't really have to explain away injuries. Especially looking at him now, it was easy to see why no one would suspect him of such nighttime activities. He was in his fifties, tall and wirey build with life lines creasing his skin and paling to white, light brown hair slicked back from his face.

The Batsuit was the epitome of hiding one's identity.

It was designed to make him seem large and foreboding, so if Batman and Bruce Wayne were ever missing again at the same time, no one would suspect a thing. Least of all when he looked like a concerned grandfather about to scold some children.

"Miss Addams, always a pleasure," Bruce said diplomatically as I stood beside Jason's chair. The junior Robin had his feet kicked up on the table and a smirk playing at his lips; whether to annoy Bruce or Dick I didn't know.

I was more concerned with Bruce's forced pleasantries. He'd always been skeptical of me, but he and I both knew that feeling became more prominent when he learned of the men I killed. "Bruce," was all I said with a slight nod.

I heard Dick enter the room behind us and the muscles in my back tensed from his proximity. In an attempt to mask it, I stretched a little before crossing my arms over my chest.

Jason's impatience for answers seemed to rival my own in that moment. "Alright, old man, give us those results," he said, tilting his chair back and forth slightly. "How is Maddie alive right now?"

"Maddie?" Dick repeated quietly and I straightened myself awkwardly. I'd only ever really had one nickname that he knew of and that was the one he'd called me. Hearing Jason call me anything but Madalyn, after the conversation we'd just had, could not go unnoticed.

"It seems Madalyn's abilities have grown exponentially from the initial results all those years ago," Bruce began. "Back then, unless witnessing her use of plant manipulation, there was nothing genetically to connect her to it. Now, within the samples Dick took, there is a significant amount of chloroplasts present."

"And what the fuck does that mean? Is she a walking plant now?" Jason asked curiously. He looked over at me as though expecting me to sprout roots and leaves; I rolled my eyes.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say all of that," Bruce replied, voice undeniably full of condescension. "She still bleeds as a human does. While I can't give a definitive answer on what the results mean, I can offer a plausible explanation. Much like Poison Ivy, Madalyn has bonded with the plants in a way that they act as one. She feels the damage dealt to her plants as though it were happening to her directly. When she is unable to protect herself, they do it for her—"