7097/Not Everything is Easy

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Not Everything is Easy
Date of Scene: 30 March 2019
Location: Red Hood Cave - Gotham
Synopsis: Red Hood is joined by Kitty Pryde in the aftermath of his showdown with Joker
Cast of Characters: Red Hood, Shadowcat




Red Hood has posed:
Night patrols are nothing new for Jason and Kitty. They have to carve out the time in each others' schedule to make time to spend together. Kitty's work at the school or with Janet or any other number of projects is during the day, and Jason's work is almost always at night.

Tonight, however, has been different. Jason usually makes his way back home in the early morning hours when Kitty's around. As three then four AM and the pre-dawn darkness starts to give way to the sun, Jason still hasn't checked in.

Breaking news on all the websites shows video from an Instantgram user - showing a group of models dressed as various villainesses held hostage by a bunch of clowns - and then there was Joker. Standing there, holding a woman dressed as Harley Quinn hostage. Smoke then fills the cabin, and as they are running, there are gunshots, and a glance of the vigilante known as Red Hood before she's turning and running as well.

Calls that have been made to Jason's secure line have been met with a pleasant female, if robotic voice: 'The person you are trying to contact is not accepting calls at the moment. Please try again later.' Texts sent to the line have gone unanswered. Any calls to his various comrades have led to dead-ends. The only thing left is to physically check where Jason may be - Big Belly, the abandoned station, the buildings outside of Arkham.

Shadowcat has posed:
The new Toyota Avalon has covered a lot of ground tonight. Pulling up in front of Big Belly Burger, Kitty going inside quickly to look about before going on to the next destination. Searching the buildings around Arkham. No sign of him there.

Finally Kitty races over to the abandoned station, breaking a number of traffic ordinances. Eventually her car pulls into the hidden entrance of the abandoned subway station that has been transformed into a crime-fighting cave. She climbs out of her car the moment it comes to stop, hurrying through to the main areas of the lair.

"Jason! Jason are you here!" she calls out as her footfalls precede her along with the words. Her clothing was hastily thrown on, a sweatshirt and jeans. Her hair is pulled back into a sloppily done ponytail, as if the state of her hair needed to reflect her own frazzled emotional state. If Kitty doesn't find him here, she's going to have to go to the crime scene next.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason's here. Sitting on the couch, he's perched on the front of it. His legs are parted. Hanging down between them is a bottle of Jack Daniel's Reserve. It was probably nearly fully. Now there's less than a few swigs left in it. He's still in his uniform. Dried mud is crusted over the knee pads and down his shins. His domino mask is calously thrown onto the ground. The helmet lies nearby on it's side.

Hearing her voice, Jason looks up. He looks - well, drunk would be too light a word. Smashed may come to mind. He's been heavy into the bottle. His eyes are bloodshot - not all of that from whiskey. His whole demeanor is slumped, defeated. He doesn't even move to rise to the woman. The phone she'd been trying to call him on? It's on the ground, smashed. Or more appropriately - shot. Multiple times from the looks of it. One of his pistols is discarded nearby.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde's heart could break as she sees the state he is in. Her steps slow, but not for lack of desire to move to him. Kitty walks to Jason slowly, and sinks down to her knees in front of where he sits. She reaches up to him, and if allowed cups the softness of her hand gently along his cheek.

There are so many words inside of Kitty, and she leaves them all unsaid. Just sits there with him and looking over into his eyes with her gentle expression of caring. Her fingers move to brush back his hair along his face, but keeping that gentle contact with him as she doesn't try to talk. Just tries to be there for him for the moment.

Red Hood has posed:
At her touch, Jason flinches. The bottle drops from his hands onto the ground. Fortunately, it lands on it's bottom, and is made from stern glass - so it doesn't shatter all over the place. Haunted blue eyes look up into Kitty's own, his expression one of a man broken momentarily. "Ever since I came back, I waited for that moment." he says quietly, his voice slurred, his words slow, calculated.

"He murdered me. That madman. That psychotic clown. He murdered me. And he laughed the whole time. The explosion that killed me was the punchline. Batman didn't mourn. He didn't avenge. Things went on as they always did. I told myself from the moment that I dredged my first breath inside that coffin?" Jason's hands ball into fists, gripping tightly.

"My only thought was to kill him. Noone else was going to do it. I would. Going through the Lazarus Pit - the training, the meditation? None of that changed that thought. Killing the clown was always the plan. It would avenge me. It would avenge the hundreds that he has killed in this mad game with the Batman. Perhaps even thousands."

"I could have had him tonight. He's sick. He's weak. I could have had him. He was running. His henchmen were down. His back was to me. It was an easy shot."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde sits quietly, her hand moving from his face down to his shoulder. Cupping the spot where shoulder turns to neck as Kitty listens to not just what transpired tonight, but what Jason has gone through. Held inside. Her fingers move gently, caressing as she listens.

As Jason falls silent, Kitty slowly nods, a little motion. Her hand runs gently along his shoulder and down his arm, until her hand can find his to hold, and squeeze softly. "I once had a sword to Ogun's throat. The ninja, who, the one I told you and your father of. He was defeated. Helpless. And I didn't kill him. I realize now, if I had? I'd have become what he was trying to turn me into."

Kitty looks up into Jason's eyes. "If we have to kill someone in a fight, we will. But to become other than that? That's letting them win, letting them turn us into something like what they are. I suspect if he were to go, injecting that extra bit of darkness into you would be how he might be happy to go out," she tells him quietly.

Red Hood has posed:
"I'd embraced that, Kitty. Gladly. Because I would have been doing the world a service." That difference becomes apparent. "I'd be doing what He, them, others could not do. Noone else wants to cross that line - for him, I'd cross that line. Time and time again." As she touches him, he pulls back slightly. Jason's still there. He's just haunted. He's angry. "Ogun possessed you. Did he /kill/ you? Did he beat you to an inch of your life and then leave you with your mother to die?"

He turns his eyes back to the ground. "You were the only reason I didn't pull the trigger. And it's because of this right now. That you wouldn't understand. That we'd be right where we are now. And I'd feel more empty than I ever been in my life - but at the same time - I'd know the world is safe from the Joker for all time. And I'd made damn sure he wouldn't have come back, Kitty."

The tears come back to his eyes, filling with anger and fear. "I can't let you become part of this, Kitty. I should have never let you become part of this."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty squeezes Jason's hand. "He didn't leave me to die with someone I loved. He sent me to be the instrument of their death, to kill the person I was closest to," Kitty tells Jason.

She reaches both hands back up, cupping his cheeks and her own eyes filling with tears as well. Her fingers move to wipe his tears as fast as they fall. "You have a good soul, Jason. And you're willing to take darkness into it for others. But you shouldn't have to," she tells him. "I love you, Jason. Joker would rather see you close away those who love you. Would rather poison your heart. Don't give in to that, please?" she asks him.

Kitty stands up slowly, moving in between his legs to gently hold Jason's head against her belly if he allows her. Her fingers brushing through his hair as she holds him there.

Red Hood has posed:
Unable to say anything else, Jason's hands release. Pressing in against Kitty's stomach as she presses him to her, he sobs. He openly sobs against her for the first time in a very long time, his body wracked with shudders as his tears come freely. There's nothing he can say or do in the moment except cry. He's broken at the moment. What's left of his defenses are gone. Pushed aside, he weeps.

He weeps for the loss of a chance.

He weeps for the loss of his innocence.

He weeps for the man that wouldn't avenge him.

He weeps for the woman that dares to love him regardless.

And he weeps for himself, because noone else ever has.