Espial

ii

Returning to his apartment, Dick Grayson gave a sigh of relief as his head hit his pillow. He hadn't even bothered to take his mask or suit off because he felt so exhausted; exhausted from trying to track down the untraceable. Her name was still a complete mystery to him and now that he could separate himself from their encounter, he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach at all he things he could have- should have- said. L'esprit d'escalier, he hummed.

L'esprit de l'escalier or l'esprit d'escalier ("staircase wit") is a French term used in English for the predicament of thinking of the perfect retort too late.

What was her name? Where did she come from? How long had she been in Blüdhaven? What was he supposed to call her? He mulled over some superhero names that would suit her: Shadow, Electric, Violet, even freaking Robin seemed to match her grace and agility. If you blinked you could miss her entirely. Espial. Dick found himself smiling at that one. Espial. It sounded like it belonged to a vaillain, not a hero. He then realised he had no idea which side she was on. Perhaps Espial was just on her own side, surviving rather than simply living. Her mask was what intrigued him too, as her unique eyes were visible through the black lace and yet he still felt himself questioning what she was really like as a person. Eyes were the window to the soul and all that.

With a sigh of content Dick finally dozed off, exhausted but finally happy he could meet the mysterious woman once and for all. 

~

Espial flitted across the rooftops, her dark boots barely grazing the ground beneath her. Dick honed in on her and immediately started chasing the illustrious woman in an attempt to speak to her once again. He'd almost forgotten the hypnotic lilt to her voice.

Suddenly the roof he was sprinting across caved in and sent Dick into a spiralling descent of terracotta and concrete. The sound of his grappling hook falling free from his utility belt and thundering into the depths below was what sent a shock of cold through his body.

Dick didn't remember landing but certainly remembered lying there, completely paralysed from the waist down. He had brushed off worse than this, hadn't he? Some of the rubble had trapped his left arm, encasing it in a mound of concrete and wooden framing. All of his strength seemed to evaporate from his body as he tried over and over to free his arm.

"Need help?" a smokey voice offered him. Slinking out of the shadows, Espial seemed to effortlessly navigate the pile of collapsed roof. Instead of replying, Dick clenched his jaw as a spasm of pain coursed down his back. Broken? Probably.

She finally managed to get close enough to Dick, smiling softly at him as she levered the rubble off of his arm.

"Thanks," he groaned, not making any attempt to stand. Perhaps it was best if he caught his breathe for a while.

"You don't get it, do you?" she muttered. Her voice was low and all traces of smoke had been extinguished from it.

"Get what?" 

"You'll always need saving." That made his mind reel.

"What on earth do you mean?" he uttered, struggling to regain any feeling in his lower body. The unnerving change of her voice had him wanting to stand up again regardless of whether he'd caught his breathe or not. Dick willed his legs to move but they gave no response.

"As long as you keep pursuing me you'll always need saving." Why was she so damn cryptic? Before he even had the chance to reply (or blink for that matter), Espial skewered a wooden beam through his chest with a wet thud. Dick let out an exhale of surprise and found it immediately hard to regain that breathe again. 

Her face didn't betray a single emotion as she began walking away from him, making her way over the rubble once more. Espial didn't even look back.

"Wait..." he croaked, blood pooling around the corners of his lips like dribble on an old man's mouth. It felt like his brain was ceasing to function and time seemed to move so slowly around him. He didn't even feel any pain at this point.

"In this world you either kill or be killed, Dick. And I don't like my chances," she quipped before slipping into the shadows once more.

~

Dick woke with a start, heartbeat frantic and sweat rolling lazily down his forehead. Never had he experienced a nightmare as vivid as this one. His death had felt so real, so permanent. Sure, when he first started under Batman's wing (pun not intended) he had dreamt of himself drying over and over again at the hands of Zucco. But this was so different. Dick found himself checking his body for injuries and wiggling his toes subconsciously because of it.

He knew dreams were usually subconscious thoughts or concerns. He wasn't truly afraid of Espial, even after their brief encounter earlier. No, he was afraid of how she would react given the fact that he wanted to talk to her again. He wanted to find out more about her, to solve the mystery that was her entire being. But would she even want anything to do with him? Would she turn on him in an attempt to get him to stop investigating her? That nightmare only seemed to reinforce Dick's desire to find out more. 

One last time that night Dick slowly shut his eyes and allowed sleep to take him once more.