DAMNED GODS,
chapter two: jason todd for you!
Seven years later.
OLIVIA WAYNE POINTED THE ARROW GLORIOUSLY, waiting for the right moment to release it. The young woman looked around, looking for any trace of distraction but ended up realizing that the only people looking at her and that they could be a possible distraction could be Dick Grayson and Atlas Eisley - her best friend, after Dick. Seven years had passed since the Olivia's family incident and knowing that all that she had left behind, gave her great comfort. Olivia Winifred Wayne could admit that she lived quietly, despite the activities of her current mentor and brother by choice: yet she felt good and felt safe. Bruce Wayne was eternally grateful to have the young blonde in his environment, not only because he had company - but that she was there to help out in bad times or even tense moments, just as Dick's decision was to leave Bruce and stop being Robin.
The Wayne girl was completely positive in Grayson's decision and tried to soften Bruce, however, his anger was something much darker than she thought. Olivia was actually beginning to understand the bond Dick and Bruce had during those ten years. She was living it in her own flesh, she was feeling them with all the nerves lodged in her body and she was seeking to understand. But she found that each person carries their own demons and Dick was very clear in telling her not to try to stop him in his decision. Olivia remembered raising her hands and stepping aside, helping in her own way. Bruce, on the other hand, was thinking of a damn plan B - a new Robin.
Olivia didn't have to guess. She knew it.
Bruce Wayne wanted to make her yet another soldier.
A soldier, able to follow him in the shadows, be his pawn - his doll to play with and destroy. Dick Grayson himself didn't allow it. Olivia heard every word during the discussion he and Bruce had before the acrobat left the mansion. Olivia remembered all the anger and darkness that swayed between them: it was an inevitable shock and nobody saw it coming. On that dark night, where the cold could penetrate every nerve in the body, the Wayne girl watched from the second floor of the library as Dick Grayson left the nest of the Wayne mansion.
"Why are you doing this, Dick?" Bruce asked with clear annoyance evident in his voice.
"It's for the best, Bruce," Dick declared and looked at the figure of Olivia up the steps. "For all. The time has come for me to stop being Robin."
"Batman can't do it alone and you know it," Olivia said, approaching him with a book in her hand. "Who will be Robin, then?"
Bruce looked at Dick and switched his gaze to the blonde. "I think we already know the answer."
Dick shook his head, feeling that anger again flood his veins, burning them inside and leaving only his promise to prevent his younger sister from being Robin was stronger than his desire to break everything in the room before leaving. He stepped between Bruce and Olivia, pointing at his mentor with his index finger. "No, don't you dare consider it, Bruce. She will not be Robin."
"That's no longer up to you."
"Of course it's up to me, damn it," Dick bellowed, straightening up in front of Wayne. "I won't allow my sister to become your puppet. Not even your soldier." Olivia stood still as she heard Dick Grayson raise his voice in front of his mentor, stridently and without gloating. The blonde pressed her lips together and looked down, witnessing another family argument. Why was Dick keeping his word? She didn't understand, and really, seeing him arrive every night with bruises on his body, was enough proof to make her understand why Dick Grayson didn't want his former sister to be Robin. "B, you have seen what is out there. You did this to me and now...do you want to do it to Olivia? Are you willing to make such a mistake?"
If Bruce Wayne had made a mistake before having Dick as Robin, now there would be two having Olivia in his life. Clearly, there was something breaking between the two of them - a gap in which a blond-haired girl was trying to tape and it was peeling away more and more. Olivia knew that this discussion was marking an end. But...where had it started? The Wayne girl knew that the darkness extended to infinite possibilities, to an extensive search for that light that was at the end of the tunnel. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were in the limbo of Hell, marking the deadly silence in the library.
Olivia was only watching withering and toxic glances, listening to the clock on her left side of the wall.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
It seemed like forever to find the point of balance between the two of them and Olivia only believed in what her eyes saw. Was she the person worthy to form that balance in their lives? She was definitely not a guardian angel and not even an antichrist. But she debated mentally whether she was a mistake just as Dick was. The girl remembered watching her stepbrother walk out of the room without saying a word, leaving Bruce and Olivia alone - both waiting for the thunderstorm to come and hit everything in their path. Olivia shed a couple of tears, Bruce broke - in his way. And the months passed, passed, passed.
Those months turned into two years.
Bruce knew at the time that Dick had already found his own way and it was time to let him go. Actually, he already released it after spending five more years with Olivia. However, Bruce didn't feel alone. He trained Olivia during those two years, not to make her a Robin - but someone else. The blonde was surprised to see that her mentor was standing firm with her ex-protégé's decision not to make her a Robin - even so she helped him on his missions from the batcave and Alfred did the simple task of cleaning his wounds every time Batman was out on patrol.
Now, Olivia was facing a target and her arrow taut in her bow - her gaze of pure concentration couldn't be more tenacious and impossible to cut with a knife. The blonde released the arrow and it pierced the air like a bullet, embedded in the center of the target. Atlas applauded before giving a light laugh as the blonde bowed lazily before them. As she straightened, her green eyes met those of Dick, who smiled warmly at her - she didn't see him coming and the mere fact that he was there was very comforting.
"You didn't expect to see me here, did you?" Dick asked as he watched Olivia leave the bow slung over her shoulder.
"Nope, I wasn't expecting you." Olivia smiled and wrapped Dick in a hug. "I was just kicking Atlas' ass."
"Hey!"
Olivia laughed out loud and parted ways with her stepbrother. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to visit you and Alfred," he replied, glancing at Atlas. "I've come to see you, too, Eisley. I don't leave my sister with anyone."
The only thing he received was a blow to his ribs and that couldn't make him forget those days when it was just him and Olivia, in the middle of a giant house for themselves. Atlas joined them two years after the blonde was rescued and placed under Bruce's tutelage. It was a simple thing, a simple push from some stout girls and Atlas was the only person who offered a hand to the young girl - that's how they met, however, Atlas was only one more brother (although that broke the Atlas heart but learned to live with it).
"Have you seen him?" Asked the girl, referring to Alfred.
"He said he would be in the Batcave for a few minutes."
Oh, little detail: Atlas Eisley was just another person who knew the Wayne family secret. It wasn't all that surprising and Olivia trusted her best friend's loyalty to keep the secret.
Eisley rested her head on Olivia's head, which really bothered the young woman (considering their difference in height) and she also hit her friend, who complained with a growl and then said, "What are we waiting for?"
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There were times when Olivia Wayne tried to understand the irrational side of her mentor. Or just wish Bruce Wayne didn't do something completely irrational. Yet there they were: Dick, Olivia, and Atlas. The three looked at the millionaire with a boy who would be two years younger than Dick but two years older than Olivia. Blue eyes, pale skin, short black hair, the fury in his eyes and the violence like the devil on his shoulder.
Bruce had found the next Robin, there was no doubt about that.
"What the hell is going on here?" Olivia was the only one who managed to drop those words, because her two companions remained still and mute like a mummy buried alive in the middle of a desert.
Bruce really hoped to hear Dick say that, but who could he lie to? Olivia was such a tenacious person that even Batman himself could be silent before her. Bruce searched for the words to explain, but the boy was faster by milliseconds and multiplying the arrogance that caused a sigh (and a round of the eyes) in Olivia. "Jason Todd for you, honey."
Oh, and was he also a smartass?
Olivia had no time for that.
But Dick and Atlas fell very quiet behind her. For a moment, the blonde hated them deeply and cordially took a couple of steps forward - reaching out a hand for the boy two years older than her. She smiled and kept her hand raised. "My name is Olivia. Olivia Wayne. Bruce's daughter."
Why was Olivia jealous? That was unnatural about her, but she remained cordial anyway.
"Welcome to the family, Jason," she replied, receiving his hand and giving it a firm squeeze, her green eyes staring at Todd's blue orbs. He just glared at her with the same look she gave him and that was synonymous with trouble, but Jason Todd didn't settle for a single handshake.
Jason Todd kissed her hand, as if Olivia Wayne was a nymph in a gloomy forest where only she was a light that brought life and prosperity. Jason sounded stupid to himself, but that young woman was truly beautiful and for a moment, he believed that she was a simple symbol of purity. Olivia was intrigued and took that look as some kind of challenge - where she must see the strength of the people. Where she should see who gave the balance and who lost it. Bruce Wayne was able to shove someone else into his chess board, but the blonde-haired girl remembered Dick Grayson's words as a forgotten vestige in her past, echoing in her head: "I won't allow my sister to become your puppet. Not even on your soldier. "
Jason Todd had become a new player in that game and not even she (or Dick) could stop him or even have a word about it, what's done is done and that worried the Wayne girl more - would he become Bruce's new mistake?
The more perfect something is, the more pain and pleasure you feel, they said.
Olivia didn't hear that warning.
She didn't want to hear the inevitable.
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not edited