the pain of facing that truth
behind the extinguished stage
all the shadows of the world engulf me

intro...

CALLIE WAN knows death like the back of her hand. First, her parents, at the hands of Count Vertigo. Then, her older sister, Cyrene Wan, known to the rest of the world as Spirit Bird. She's no stranger to loss, and for the past few years she'd spent her days lonely in London, quietly planning her return to America.

Callie Wan knows superheroes. Her sister was one. She'd watched heroes come and go in her household. She'd watched them embark on missions to save the world and return with their hopes crushed, worldviews destroyed. She was partly raised by Green Arrow and Black Canary. And she'd watched them try, over and over again, to save the ones she held dear, and fail every time.

But Callie also knows that in the end, the villains are always brought to justice. Locked up behind bars. Punished. Even if it wouldn't bring back her family, it meant something. Something that there would be retributions, consequences.

Until that cycle is broken. Until Jason Todd, the Red Hood of Gotham City, is unable to deliver justice to those who murdered her sister. Five years after her sister's death, Rudolph Swinton remains free. Generations of family wealth and Jason's inability to find concrete evidence allowed Swinton to continue living while her sister stayed dead. And if Jason was too weak, she'd do it herself. Word by word, investigation by investigation, article by article, Callie would deliver her own brand of justice, she would make sure her sister's sacrifice was not in vain.

And damned if Jason thought he could stop her. He was the final piece in this puzzle of vengeance, and she would not stop until it was completed. Until he'd paid the price too.

And before she delivered his own retribution, he could either get behind her, or get out of the way.

featuring...

zeng keni as calypso "callie" wan

liu lingzi as cyrene wan
[ spirit bird / 精卫鸟 ]

the wan sisters

with...

lu yuxiao as remiel chen
[ phantasma ]

hu jiaxin as odile yu
[ cygnet ]

maddie philips as cecily lange
[ delphi ]

zeng li as seraphina al ghul

playlist...

the fox and the wolf on spotify
by nyxie

"because you and i...

we have good bones."

disclaimer...

strong language, potential fade to black & suggestive content, normal dc level of violence, topics of death

this fic will be more mature than my usual fics!!!

author's note...

hello and welcome to the third (and most likely final) book of the seraphim trilogy!!! it was meant to be a duology but well. here we are. you do not need to have read the first two books, and this book is pretty disconnected from the two prequels. the main part of this book also takes place before the events of the second book, swan song, and their initial meeting also happens before the events of the first book, no celestial (i've included a timeline w/ character ages at the bottom, it doesn't really spoil much but feel free to skip it if you'd like). none of the plot overlaps, though original characters featured in my two other fics will be mentioned. unfortunately, if you're here for more remiel and odile content, you'll be disappointed. odile'll be mentioned and remiel will likely have minor appearances, but this story is focused on callie and jason.

if you're not interested in some of my behind-the-scene thoughts at the creation of this fic, feel free to skip ahead. if you're interested, stay reading.

i was very hesitant on whether or not i wanted to write this. on one hand, i thought it would be really interesting. on the other, jason has never been my favourite robin (that has always gone to dick and damian), and while i like the character of the red hood, he was never quite my #1??? and he's such a complex character to write that i was always kind of scared of it. but eventually i gave in. and i decided callie would be a good fit for him.

jason and callie's relationship is meant to mirror that of bruce and jason's. this shakes jason. looking at callie reminds him of himself: angry, hungry for revenge, but completely and utterly lost. just as jason was furious at bruce for failing to kill the joker to avenge him, callie is angry that jason never managed to avenge her older sister.

if you know me, i like my names to have meaning. to reflect the character's story. i took care to pick names for our centre pair of sisters, and eventually settled on calypso and cyrene. calypso, named after the nymph from the odyssey, and like her, desperately trying to keep the one she loves with her. the mythological calypso was fuelled by romantic love, our calypso is fueled by sisterhood. family. and just like the myths, she fails to keep her sister close by.

jason is her hermes. the one who comes and takes her sister away. she knows it's not all his fault, but she can't help it. and perhaps she views him as an argonaut too, just like his namesake. an adventurer who comes, builds a team that includes her sister, but then fails to return her.

cyrene is the hero. the one who fights lions. the one who is courageous and brave. callie admires her, loves her, but all she wants is for cyrene to be safe. calypso wan does not understand heroism and self-sacrifice. but that is what cyrene wan is.

so it is inevitable one sister is lost while the other survives. and she wants vengeance.

revenge is certainly a theme in the seraphim trilogy—it's a major plotline in both of the former two books, and completely takes centre stage for this one. but this is also a story about coping with loss. about death. and how to move on. unlike remiel and odile, callie isn't a superhero and she has no interest in being one. she has powers, but she just wants to be an ordinary girl.

too bad she lives in the wrong world for it.

i was originally going to use black mask and scarecrow as the main villains for this one, but then i decided to go another route. i took heavy inspiration from batman #423 (1988), prob more popularly known as "the diplomat's son". rudolph swinton, who is an original character, is loosely based off felipe garzonas, with the whole "wealth and influence keeping him out of trouble" type of thing. so even though they all know he's behind the death of callie's sister, none of them have the ability to actually get charges pressed against him and have him in jail. thus, callie's anger at the batfam's seeming incompetence.

each of my main characters sort of had themes? for remiel, it was less overtly symbolic, instead focusing on her inability to consider herself a good person or a hero. remiel's story was about escaping from a toxic past and looking into the future, being brave enough to make that decision. odile had clear symbols in the swan and peach blossoms. her story was about confronting secrets, going out of one's comfort zone, growing up. and just generally being a good person. she makes charity and helping people her life's purpose, in or out of costume.

callie isn't like that. callie isn't generous. she's a bit selfish, really. she's a little darker, a little more reserved, a little more cynical. and i can't wait for you all to meet her.

(here's a timeline of the events of the three books, starting from remiel's arrival in gotham prior to book 1 and ending with the events of book 2, swan song. it doesn't spoil anything particularly important but you can absolutely read on while ignoring it.

year one: remiel (16) at gotham
year two: remiel (17) leaves gotham, dick becomes nightwing
year three: jason (16) becomes robin and dies
year four: callie's (14) parents die and she is taken in by green arrow and black canary, tim becomes red robin
year five:
year six: jason (19) returns
year seven: callie (17), death of cyrene, destruction of eyu sect, odile (9)
year eight: remiel (23) returns to gotham, damian (12) arrives at gotham, callie (18) heads to the uk
year nine: remiel (24) in hong kong, odile (11) leaves yuannan
year ten:
year eleven:
year twelve: odile (14) and damian (16) meet at guilin
year thirteen:
year fourteen: callie (22) and jason (25) in good bones, odile (16) and damian (18) in shanghai
year fifteen:
year sixteen:
year seventeen: odile (19) returns to gotham with remiel (32))

begin: 02/10/2024
end: