The Lazarus Effect

Four

The Neighbourhood- Alleyways

Jason:

The noise that came out of her mouth tore me apart. The broken look in her eyes was one I was all too familiar with. I took this beautiful woman's body out of Bruce's arms and watched as Bruce took his daughter with him.

"Jay? What just happened?" Dick whispered. He's just as shocked as I am.

"What always happens to us," I answered putting Beth over my shoulder. I lowered us down to where the cops were. Gordon came over once he spotted both of us.

"What happened?" he asked. I gently put her down making sure I didn't harm her.

"She just died in her daughter's arms," I said. His eyes looked at me shaking his head.

"Bruce Wayne's daughter?" he asked kneeling down next to Beth.

"That's the one, commissioner," Dick said.

"Make sure she's taken care of," I requested looking down at what was one of the loveliest women I had ever met.

"I will," he nodded looking down at her face. He pushed a strand of her hair away from her face. "She's beautiful,"

"She was the loveliest woman ever. She was her daughter's life," I whispered. She looks like she's sleeping. There's nothing more beautiful. "Open up your cells. You're about to get a swarm of fuck heads brought in,"

The trip to Wayne Manor was one I hadn't made in a very long time. We all waited in the study until Bruce walked in with his head hanging low. None of us said anything for a while. The look in his eyes was one that had been etched into his features one too many times. Familiarity with death and loss shouldn't be etched in our souls this way.

"We have to talk about Ilya," he finally said.

"Yeah, her mom just died," Dick pointed out.

"No, not that. When I first found out Ilya was my daughter a few weeks ago, she was missing," Bruce said sitting in his armchair. "I found her with Talia,"

"Mother?" Damian asked very surprised.

"Yes, there was an incident in Star City that put Beth in danger. She almost died," he said putting a file on the coffee table. "My guess is she was out there getting in trouble and Thea Queen found her.

"Thea took her under her wing and her potential did not go unnoticed. She's trained by the current Ras Al' Ghul. Malcolm Merlyn. She's had training with Talia and I haven't gotten around to ask her who else she's worked with. Talia locked her up when she refused to give up Thea Queen's location. That's until I showed up with Beth.

"Ilya baited Talia into a fight to free her mother. At the time, she was badly hurt. I'm willing to bet she even had internal damage. Talia made her get into the pit,"

"Mother would never do that," Damian said getting up. "Mother hates that thing. She'd never do something like that to anyone,"

"She did Damian and by the looks of it, Talia's gone in the pit herself,"

"No," Damian said shaking his head. He stormed out making Bruce sigh.

"What happened?" I asked remembering how hard it had been to come back out of that thing.

"She had a mental struggle. Whatever she was seeing scared the hell out of her. It still does which was why she wanted to go back to Star City and try to forget about it. Beth said she was hallucinating the shadow of what she calls The Cu Chulainn. That was the Alias she was given as a member of the league of shadows,"