PROLOGUE / SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.

"I THINK MY PARENTS TRIED TO POISON ME THIS MORNING."

The confession drifted up into the cold air, thick and heavy like plumes of smoke in the wind. Dark clouds hung overhead, the winter sun just barely peeking through to shine upon Gotham. Tina was on her back, staring up at the sky and trying to make shapes out of the curves and contours of the clouds. Her hand was just close enough to Jason's that she could almost make out its warmth.

"Not unlike them." He hummed in agreeance, shifting in the grass as he rolled over to face her. "What did they do this time?"

Tina shrugged, dark eyes still fixed on the clouds. Her blood felt as thick as syrup, churning through her veins with a painful slowness, and the air felt suffocating. "Tried to make me take these weird pills before breakfast." She recalled, trying to thread shaking fingers through the cold blades of grass. "And then when I refused to take them, they crushed them up and added them to my food. As if I wouldn't notice."

"What villains." Jason drawled, holding in a laugh. It was an inside joke the two shared, that Anton Novikov and Yulia Borovskaya were honorary members of Batman's gallery of rogues. It was hardly a stretch: Tina's father had represented the Falcone or Savitsky crime families in court more times than he had shown up to her birthday parties, and her mother had a string of short–lived marriages that had always ended in a funeral. "Why did they poison you?"

"Because they're evil, obviously." Tina jeered, nose wrinkled as she held in a laugh of her own. The winter cold had crept into her aching bones, making her shiver. One of the clouds over her head looked like a bat, backlit by the weak sun. "Honestly, who knows with them. It could have been them wanting to help me build up immunity to poison because they're 'caring, loving parents', or it could have been them wanting to get rid of me so they could have a son to carry on the family name. Hell, maybe they just felt like it."

There was a moment of silence as he let the words sink in, the only sound being the wind whistling past. Tina would have been content to leave the conversation there and continue watching the clouds, but Jason pulled her out of her own thoughts with a quiet laugh. "You know, most people would be a bit more concerned if their parents tried to kill them. You sound like you're talking about the weather."

"I will not be afraid of death and bane." Tina scoffed, resting her head against the cold grass and closing her eyes. The thick syrup dragging through her veins had sucked all the energy out of her. "I'm not afraid to die, J. My parents won't scare me just by trying to kill me."

"My, how brave of you." Jason teased, before going eerily quiet. The air turned as cold as steel, and the grass felt sharp under her fingers. "Okay, maybe you aren't afraid to die. Is it because of me?"

"Mm?" Tina hummed for him to continue, eyes still closed.

"Are you not afraid to die, because I'm already dead?"

Tina jerked her head to the side, her eyes flying open—but there was nothing there. Jason wasn't there. Jason had never been there. Jason was dead.

All alone, in a cell in Arkham Asylum, Tina screamed.

FOOTNOTES / shorter than i usually write, i know, but i think it's exactly what it needs to be.