SILHOUETTES ─ jason todd

SILHOUETTES

          Gwendolyn Ma is acutely aware that she is a creature come crawling out of the abyss of her own survivor's guilt. And yet, the abyss is all she has. What's that saying—if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you?

In the aftermath of the Joker's relentless terrorism, Gwen lost everything in the fire. A preventable fire. She'd had known about the horrors that the world was capable of harbouring and still failed to protect them all. She had all that power, and still, she'd failed to kill a madman masquerading as a clown. Instead, it was innocent blood that'd stained her hands.

          Where there is darkness, there must be light, and where there is evil, there must be good, for one could not exist without the presence of the other.

          Guinevere Ma never used to see the light. Justice and vengeance often blurred the lines. Until saving the city meant caring for the people. Until it became about hope. While Gotham rebuilds, crime continues to climb to its peak. This city is never going to be clean, that's for sure, but that's okay. They're going to take it one day at a time. Once, Guinevere believed that being a metahuman meant that her life was in constant peril. All this power within her—power that she never asked for, but was born with—all this light and the world only saw someone to be afraid of. Someone to hate. Until the mask of the White Swan pushed her into the light, into her fate, and into the greatness threaded into her DNA.

          After Gwen walked away from their stage, too wrapped up in her grief to continue, Guinevere stayed. It would be the first time the twins were separated since birth. Nothing would be the same. Even when Guinevere continues saving the world with the help of the Justice League, even when Gotham has pieced itself back together, something is still missing.

          Meanwhile, Gwen lives half a life wasting away in her dark days, festering in her madness. Until she comes face-to-face with an old ghost of her past, Jason Todd himself, who offers to pull her out of the dark world she's walled herself into.

          Bruce Wayne has always believed that the twins were never complete without each other. He could see it in Guinevere's well-hidden despair, the faltering smiles she fakes at the end of every successful mission, another victory on her belt and no one to return home to share it with. He could see it in the moments during a fight where she'd lose control of her powers. Where her sister once balanced her out, she was now fighting for total control without an anchor. For the sake of the world, and for Guinevere, Bruce sees only one solution:

          To save Gwen from herself before it's too late.

          Deep down, Gwen knows that it's only a matter of time before she's out there again. History turning on its gyre. It always begins with justice, evening out the score. And then it always goes a little too far. One body mutilated beyond recognition. An army of scattered thugs hunted through the labyrinth of alleys. A kingpin drawn and quartered in the name of penance. Then the good people start getting hurt. At first an accident, she hadn't meant for things to get so violent so quickly. Then the bodies begin piling up. More and more civilians reported dead in the crossfire, necessary casualties. But, in the end, they still got the bad guy. That's what matters.

         Then the massacres begin. And there's no justifying that.

          Gwen can write the story from start to finish before it's even begun. But Jason Todd is insistent on her discharge from Belle Reve. After Gwen walked away, Guinevere was struggling to fill the vacuum on her own, and Gotham had always been well-attuned to vulnerability. To sink its teeth in the soft flesh. Guinevere needs Gwen. The city needs Gwen, whether she comes back as the Black Swan or as something else. And Jason doesn't need a perfect hero. What he needs is the Black Swan.