Tim Drake/Red Robin (bloodred_robin) wrote in dc_nextgen,
@ 2011-01-04 19:56:00

Entry tags:

inactive - sindella zatara, npc - tim drake, zachary zatara

The Hard Part
Hey, if something happens to me one night, I need you to make sure Zach knows, okay? I don't want him to be the last person to know.

Today was one of those rare days when Tim Drake hated being a man of his word. J'anna and Lian stayed over in London to talk to J'anna's mother, but Tim decided to head back and get other things in order. He was happy for his girlfriend, but there was too much left undone right now to rest.

One of his best friends was gone.

He'd placed a call to Conner and Cassie to let them know, but asked them to keep things quiet until after he'd spoken to Zach. They promised they would.

Then he dialed Zach's number. For once, he got Zach's answering machine. He must be out with his new partners or something. Mia mentioned that he'd found a few more people into magic like him.

"Hey, Zach. Can you stop by my place, man? It's important.

It's about Mia." he says.

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greatest_zatara
2011-01-05 02:58 am UTC (link)

Zach had been fairly busy with reinforcing a section of Shadowcrest's dimensional pocket to serve as a dedicated meeting place for the sudden swelling of Shadowpact's membership, but he had noted that it was unusual not to be able to get hold of Mia for this long. Sure, in true Arrow fashion, she occasionally worked a longer plan or went incommunicado for training, but thankfully they'd set up intermediaries to drop contact info with in case of emergencies.

Thus, he has nothing to get him ready for what's in store when Tim contacts him. He hadn't seen Drake in a while anyway, so he seems downright cheerful when he shows up.

He pushes a six-pack into Tim's stomach when he opens the door to his place. "Evening Drake, how goes?"

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bloodred_robin
2011-01-05 03:20 am UTC (link)

Damn. He's happy.

Tim accepts the beer, setting it on the counter as Zach walks in. The apartment is meticulously clean, as J'anna cleans when she's not cooking or punching bad guys in the face. Of course, she also does this at Martian-Speed, which makes it take all of a few minutes.

Still, Tim doesn't like the fact that he's about to end Zach's good mood.

"It could be better, Zach." Tim says. Normally, this is the place where people say 'you might want to sit down', but then the news makes them stand back up...or sit down. Tim decides to skip that part and get to the point, because Zach needs to know what's going on.

"Mia wanted me to call you in case something ever happened to her, Zach. You know that she's been working in Gotham recently, with Jane Doe-Smith. They've been getting the Birds back together." Tim says.

"Their most recent case took a bad turn. They were dealing with a real psycho; ironically, Mia helped me put this guy behind bars at the start of last year. But he got loose and went after someone close to me. He was going to kill her, but Mia got between the two of them." Tim says, pausing to take a deep breath.

"He killed Mia with her own arrows. I'm sorry, Zach.

Mia's dead."

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greatest_zatara
2011-01-05 03:28 am UTC (link)

Zach just blinks, the room seeming to fall silent. The only hint he heard any of what Tim just said is the color falling from his face.

"Oh... I see."

He swallows, then goes to open a beer, fingers fumbling with the bottle-cap slightly. "Well that's nothing serious then, right? Ollie came back, Superman came back, Aquaman, the Hawks do it every few years it seems like... she'll be back... she'll be back before we know it."

He smacks the bottle against the countertop, snapping the cap off harshly, chugging strongly before he turns to look at Tim with wide eyes, wiping his mouth on a sleeve of his suit-jacket.

"Hell... I'm the world's greatest magician... I could just call her spirit up anyway. I could probably even bring her back. There's the sealed section of the library in Shadowcrest I've never bothered with before, after all. This... this is an annoyance. Hardly even worth calling me over for, Drake."

He drinks more and then smiles, although calling it a smile is being generous. 'Horrible rictus' would be more appropriate.

"You could have just left this on my machine..." He laughs, a strangled little noise.

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bloodred_robin
2011-01-05 03:37 am UTC (link)

If Tim hadn't spent years reading people's body language and facial expressions, studying the most minute tics and human psychology, Zach /might/ have fooled him for a full minute.

As it was, Zachary Zatara is vain. That's a mild term.

Zach, even at his most humble (a rare thing), never wiped his lips on his sleeve. His manners, despite his arrogant demeanor, were usually flawless. Zach's tone was another giveaway; Zach could literally control the forces of nature with a few gestures and a thought, like so many other people Tim knew. He probably did know of some spell that could restore the dead or call back a soul.

But Tim knew that Zach knew the consequences of using any such magic, both on the person using it and the person it was used upon.

And they both knew that Zach would never, ever do that Mia.

"Look, Zach...the guy who did this was an animal. Jane and Robin stopped him, but it was too late for Mia. I haven't talked to Oliver or the rest of the family yet, but I'm heading to Gotham within the next couple of days. You're welcome to come with me if you want." Tim says.

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	greatest_zatara 2011-01-05 05:16 am UTC (link)
	"Not some Crisis... not something saving the world or off in space or some rogue Superman robot... just... some 'animal'? That's what killed her? That's why she's not coming home?" His voice starts to rise as he moves towards Tim again. "What was his name, Drake?" There is violence in Zachary Zatara's tone. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

bloodred_robin
2011-01-05 05:52 am UTC (link)

"His name was Robert Franklin 'Frank' Wells, also known as The Artist. His method is to kill young women, between the ages of twenty and twenty-eight, then pose their bodies after they're dead. He made a fortune in Europe selling his death art, which he modeled after his crimes. Or maybe he modeled his crimes after his art. Can't be certain of that.

I busted him back in my Robin days as a subway tagger in Gotham. He was a block away from a convenience store murder, but I didn't make the connection back then." Tim says quietly.

"Five years later, I ran across a string of murders that caught my attention. It was the Artist. The last woman he murdered, before taking a hiatus, was Giselle Fontaine, my fiancee." Tim says, feeling his heartache at discussing Giselle again.

"Two years after that, I chased him around Europe and the Mediterranean. I caught up to him in Hong Kong with the help of a couple of other people who wanted him. He nearly killed all three of us and escaped. One year later, he did his first show here in Star City. That was January of last year, when those call girls started turning up dead. I came back to the States to stop him and that's when I ran into Mia again for the first time.

It was tough, but we stopped him. /She/ stopped him." Tim says, trying to get Zach to look at him.

"You can't go after this guy, Zach. First, Mia wouldn't want that. Secondly, he's dead." Tim says.

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	greatest_zatara 2011-01-05 10:01 pm UTC (link)
	Zach grabs Tim by the collar, mouth opening as if he's going to say something, but words are refusing to come out. When they do, it's a broken rasp. "No... then I... I can't even... can't even catch the one who..." The tears finally start to come. "JUST WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THEN, DRAKE?!" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

bloodred_robin
2011-01-06 01:56 am UTC (link)

Tim does not have any easy answers, but he knows that Mia would hate to see Zach break down like this. Tim gently removes Zach's hands from his collar.

"She'd want you to live, Zach. It's not going to be easy at all, but you can't let yourself fall apart. Mia would hate for that to happen." Tim says, speaking from experience of a sort.

Of course, when Giselle died, he didn't want to hear anything like what he was saying to Zach. He'd wanted to die and, for a time, he let himself in many ways.

"You...just have to take it minute to minute. Why don't we sit down?" Tim asks.

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	greatest_zatara 2011-01-06 02:11 am UTC (link)
	Zach hardly has to be told. He practically falls into a chair. "This isn't how it's supposed to be..." He runs his hands through his hair. "There's supposed to be something to do. Something to hit... some way to make things right." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bloodred_robin 2011-01-06 03:56 am UTC (link)
	"Zach, you're not in any shape to do any of that, man. Right now, just...feel. The healing has to begin somewhere." Tim tells him. "You're allowed to feel pain, to be upset. Just don't let it rule you, man. And do not blame yourself under any circumstances." Tim says. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	greatest_zatara 2011-01-07 01:28 am UTC (link)
	Zach seems like he hears Tim's words, but his expression still darkens. "I'll be in touch." He snaps his fingers, and he's gone. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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