Life of Chaos

The Big Lie

"Better Horrible Truths,
Than Kind Lies"

-Kaz Brecker
Six of Crows; By Leigh Bardugo

Tarry leaned back on a chair in a blindingly bright room in the cave. An older looking medical room. The light only made his head hurt worse. Bruce was looking over Ace to see if anything was truly wrong.

"What happened?" Bruce asked without looking over at him.

"I blacked out."

"Lies are unbecoming."

Tarry groaned, "I don't have the energy to fight, Bruce."

"Than stop lying. Max called."

"Slag it."

"She told me a fairly interesting story."

"I'm sorry. Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm sorry, I haven't been taking my meds."

Bruce hummed, "Meds that are no where written in your medical record."

"What?" Tarry took his arm off of his eyes with a wince, "How did you get my Medical record? And what do you mean those damn pills aren't on there?"

Bruce patted Ace's head gently before limping over to the lights and turning them down, "You really thought I wouldn't have researched your whole history when you became Batman?"

Tarry let his shoulders relax as the lights turned to a more bearable level, "I had an inkling but it's rare for you to ever blatantly share it aloud."

"I can't fault you for thinking that. And looking through your history, you have no record of a car accident. Nor do either of your parents or Matt being in one."

Tarry frowned, "What? That doesn't make sense. Why would dad or mom just make it up?"

"It started when you were seven?"

"Yeah. They told me it was because I hit my head in a car accident. Dad was driving to go see mom in the hospital with Matt."

"What's been been happening since you've stopped taking the pills?"

"Flashes of things. Images mostly. Sometimes just voices. They're never together. Matt's there, as a baby. My stuffed snake I've had since forever. Two men as well. I don't know much else. They're tall, black haired. One has blue eyes and the other is a mix of green blue. They're intimidating, but I've never once felt fear towards them."

Bruce hummed, "I'm going to run a DNA test."

Tarry gave him a shocked expression, "You haven't yet?"

"I didn't need one at the time. Now I think it would benefit both of us." Bruce patted his knee, "Go up and sleep. I'll call your mother and tell her you were feeling ill. She'll understand why you didn't want to go driving home and I'm far to old to be driving."

Tarry grinned at that mild joke but to in pain to do much else. Staggering up the stairs, Ace following, Tarry made it to the nearest bedroom before collapsing onto the bed. The damn visions always took so much out of him.

He woke up some time later blinking bleary at the sun lit room. Ace grunted at the end of his bed. Tarry grunted back. His head throbbed dully just behind his eyes. Looking once more out at the sun and noticed he'd only slept a few hours nap than a true sleep. Ace seemed to agree that it was far too early to get up. Tarry grinned at the dog, leaving him there as he walked out of the random room and down the hall. After a moment, Ace trotted after him.