"Thank you for coming, Nadia."
There was genuine appreciation in Talia's voice. Whatever responsibilities her sister had been occupied with, she had apparently set them aside the moment Talia's message reached her.
Nadia offered a faint smile.
"For the champion of the Battle of Lian Yu?" Nadia replied. "I wouldn't have ignored such a summon of which you made emphasis on his dire need of my aid."
There was a hint of curiosity beneath her calm demeanor as she continued. "And from the way you described the situation in your message, it seemed wise to treat the matter with the utmost urgency."
Talia nodded in acknowledgment.
"Thank goodness you did."
The brief exchange gave way to a more serious atmosphere as Nadia shifted her focus back to the reason she had been summoned. Her expression grew thoughtful, carefully reviewing everything Talia had already told her.
"You said he's somehow developed a dissociated personality?" she asked, though uncertainty lingered in her tone. It was a kind of uncertainty that suggested she wasn't entirely convinced she had been given the complete picture.
After receiving a confirming nod from Talia, Nadia folded her arms and continued her line of questioning.
"Does he switch between personalities completely, or do they overlap and interchange?" Her gaze whetted slightly as she searched for the most accurate comparison.
"Similar to someone possessed by a yoaghaui who has yet to succumb to full suppression?"
The questions were delivered with the calm professionalism of a physician evaluating a patient through a family member's observations. Every detail mattered, and Nadia's experience had taught her that understanding the symptoms was often the first step toward understanding the problem itself.
Talia remained silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts before answering.
After all, explaining Jason Todd's current condition was proving far more complicated than simply labeling it as a dissociated personality.
"See for yourself," Talia said as she led Nadia through the winding corridors deep beneath the fortress.
The further they descended, the colder the air became. Stone walls slick with moisture lined the underground passage, illuminated only by flickering torches mounted at regular intervals. The dungeon was quiet save for the distant drip of water echoing through the darkness.
Eventually, they arrived before a heavy iron door positioned among a row of isolated cells.
Without hesitation, Talia pushed it open.
The metal hinges groaned loudly, breaking the silence.
Inside, a young man sat restrained by thick chains fastened to the walls and floor. His wrists were bound above him while additional restraints wrapped around his torso and ankles, leaving little room for movement. Despite his condition, there was still a stubborn fire burning behind his eyes.
For a brief moment, the only thing reflected in his gaze were the two women standing at the entrance.
Nadia stood slightly ahead, her elegant figure draped in flowing emerald robes embroidered with intricate golden patterns along the sleeves and hem. The rich fabric hung gracefully from her shoulders, complementing the golden jewelry adorning her wrists and neck. Her dark hair cascaded freely down her back, framing a face that possessed both beauty and authority.
Beside her walked Talia.
Unlike her sister's regal appearance, Talia's attire carried an elegant edge befitting a daughter of the Demon. She wore a fitted black combat dress reinforced with subtle armor plating beneath the fabric. The outfit hugged her athletic frame while remaining practical enough for battle. A dark green cloak rested across her shoulders, its color bearing the signature mark of the House of al Ghul. Leather gloves covered her hands, and a curved dagger rested sheathed against her hip. Every detail about her appearance projected discipline, danger, and control.
The prisoner's eyes followed them as they entered the cell and steadily advanced toward him.
At first, his expression remained hard and guarded.
Then recognition struck.
His stern glare instantly crumbled, replaced by frantic desperation.
"Nadia!"
His voice echoed through the chamber.
"Nadia, please help me. Help me get out of here."
The chains rattled violently as he strained against them.
Having reached a comfortable distance from the prisoner, both women came to a stop. Nadia remained silent as she studied him, while Talia stood beside her with a calm and observatory composure.
Before them stood a desperate prisoner who seemed to cling on to the hope of rescue.
"Jase?"
Confusion was written plainly across Nadia's face as she looked from the chained young man to Talia walking beside her, then back again. The person before her was supposedly the same Jason Todd her father had once taken as a disciple—a warrior renowned for his determination and ferocity. Yet the sight in front of her painted an entirely different picture.
"Yes, it's me," the young man replied immediately, his voice carrying a hopeful note.
Relief seemed to flood his features.
"Thank goodness you remember me. Please, you have to help me. That sister of yours is a lunatic, she kidnapped me without reason or an explanation."
As he spoke, he cast an uneasy glance toward Talia, his expression making him look less like a hardened fighter and more like a victim who had endured some terrible ordeal. There was even a trace of fear in his eyes whenever they drifted in her direction.
"Kidnapped?" Nadia repeated quietly.
The word left her lips in little more than a mutter as she tried to process the bizarre accusation. Nothing about the situation aligned with what she knew of either Jason or Talia.
Beside her, Talia simply shrugged.
The gesture was subtle, accompanied by an expression that conveyed complete bewilderment. She offered no defense, no explanation, and no attempt to argue against the accusation. If anything, she appeared just as confused by Jason's claims as Nadia was.
That reaction alone told Nadia more than enough.
Slowly, a look of understanding crossed her face.
"I have to admit," she began, turning her attention fully back to the chained young man, "that's quite an impressive performance."
Jason blinked.
"The Jason I know is a warrior fierce enough that my father personally deemed him worthy of becoming his disciple. A man like that wouldn't be putting on such a pathetic display."
Her eyes narrowed as she fixed him with a probing look.
"So why don't we stop wasting each other's time with the act?"
For a brief moment, the young man simply stared at her.
The desperate look in his eyes remained frozen in place, as though he hadn't expected his plea to be dismissed so completely. Then, almost imperceptibly, the expression began to change.
The fear he expressed was first to fade out before disappearing.
The desperation followed. And in their place came an expression far more unsettling.
A faint smirk slowly tugged at the left corner of his lips, subtle enough that someone less observant might have missed it entirely. Yet once noticed, it seemed to transform the atmosphere of the room.
The hopeful victim was gone.
"Though our time together was brief and largely focused on taking down Slade and his army of mercenaries," he said, his tone now carrying an edge that hadn't been there moments ago, "it seems I made quite the impression." The smirk widened ever so slightly as his gaze drifted away from Nadia and settled squarely on Talia.
"I see your efforts to figure this out were unsuccessful." He started to say. "Let me guess. After exhausting every option available to you, you decided to hand the problem over to your big sister and hope she'd come save the day."
The jab landed precisely where intended.
Talia's expression remained composed, but there was no missing the mocking satisfaction in Todd's eyes as he watched for her reaction.
Whatever persona had been begging for help moments ago had disappeared entirely.
And that fact was far more disturbing to both ladies than any accusation or jabs of mockery he made.
"Let me guess," Nadia said, masking the uneasy feeling crawling beneath her skin with a dry tone. "His alter ego is what you'd call a jackass."
"As you can already see," Talia replied without missing a beat.
There was a tiredness to her voice that only came from prolonged exposure. "Just wait until you hear how creative he gets with his death threats."
Nadia shot her sister a brief glance at that remark before turning her attention back to the chained young man.
"What can I say?" he replied with a faint smirk. "I have quite the imagination."
Rather than being offended, he seemed genuinely pleased by Talia's description, as though he had interpreted it as praise rather than criticism.
The reaction did little to ease Nadia's nerves.
There was something profoundly unsettling about him. It wasn't merely the confidence. It was the way he carried himself, the ease with which his demeanor had shifted from frightened victim to mocking observer. Every smile felt deliberate. Every word felt calculated. Like a trickster from mystical folklore.
"Your personality traits bear a striking resemblance to those attributed to fox spirits," Talia said, deciding to test a theory she had been entertaining. "Tricksters. Manipulators."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"You've taken possession of him, and somehow you've convinced him that he's suffering from a dissociative identity disorder."
The accusation hung in the air between them.
For a moment, the young man simply stared at her.
Then he chuckled.
"Someone's been reading a little too much Japanese folklore." His response neither confirmed nor denied the theory. Instead, he sidestepped it entirely, turning her suspicion into the punchline of a joke.
Talia noticed the evasion immediately.
Whether intentional or not, he had avoided giving a direct answer.
Rather than pursue the matter further and risk going in circles, she decided to approach the problem from a different angle.
"Where's Jason?"
The question was simple on surface level, but If she could identify what this was, perhaps she could learn what had happened to the real Jason Todd.
The young man blinked. "Where else would he be?" he asked. "Right here, standing—or rather chained—directly in front of you."
"You know perfectly well what she meant." Nadia interjected as his gaze drifted toward her.
"I believe you're confusing me for someone obligated to answer your questions."
The smirk never left his face as his eyes swept lazily across both women.
"But I will admit," he continued, sounding genuinely curious now, "I'm interested to see how your big sister intends to handle this little situation."
His attention settled on Nadia.
"Surely you didn't rush all the way here without a solution. Or at the very least, some kind of plan." The challenge in his voice was impossible to miss.
Nadia folded her arms. "You'd better start providing answers to our questions, or else—"
She never got the chance to finish her words due to an abrupt interruption.
"Or else what?" The playful amusement vanished from his voice and was replaced with one that was neither anger, nor aggression.
If anything, the calmness was more unsettling. .
The faint smile remained on his lips as he watched her expectantly, almost inviting the threat. There was an unsettling confidence behind his eyes, as though he already knew whatever consequences she intended to impose and had found them thoroughly unimpressive.
For the first time since entering the cell, Nadia found herself questioning whether the chains restraining him were truly meant to keep him contained.
Or simply to give everyone else the illusion that he was.
"Then this cell becomes your new home," Nadia said evenly. "Or we put an end to Jason's suffering with a mercy kill. Given the kind of warrior he is, I'm sure he'd prefer that over allowing you to continue whatever it is you're doing to him."
Her voice remained steady, betraying none of the discomfort she was feeling.
In truth, something about the young man unsettled her.
It wasn't simply his words or the mocking confidence he carried. It was the way he seemed completely unbothered by his circumstances. Chained, imprisoned, and under constant observation, yet he behaved as though he held all the cards. That quiet certainty stirred an unease Nadia was unwilling to acknowledge openly.
"While you consider those possibilities," she continued, refusing to surrender control of the conversation, "I'll rephrase my sister's question."
Taking a step forward, she fixed him with a firm stare.
"What is Jason's current situation?" The shift in her demeanor was subtle but deliberate. Rather than reacting to his provocations, she chose to impose structure on the conversation, taking the authoritative role and forcing the discussion back onto the information they actually needed.
"Can't say." The answer came in a near instant.
Predictably.
Both sisters narrowed their eyes, clearly their patience was beginning to wear thin.
Every question seemed to run headfirst into a wall of evasions, sarcasm, and vague answers.
The young man, however, appeared thoroughly amused by their growing frustration.
"But..." he continued, drawing their attention back to him. "I will tell you one thing. Consider it an attempt to help you understand just how laughably futile your efforts are likely to be."
The statement immediately hardened both women's focus.
At last, it seemed they might get an actual answer.
Or at least something resembling one.
Whether it was a clue, an insight, or another manipulation remained to be seen, but neither was about to ignore the opportunity.
The young man's expression softened into something almost thoughtful.
"Whether you like it or not, the Jason you've come to know and I are one and the same soul." The words caused both women to remain perfectly still.
"We are two sides of a single whole," he continued. "And I am simply the manifestation of the darkness within us, of which he stubbornly rejects." His gaze drifted between them as he spoke.
"Even if you somehow manage to alter our current state... even if you succeed in suppressing me while strengthening his influence... even if you find a way to place him firmly in control while diminishing my own presence..."
His voice trailed off as silence settled over the cell.
The unfinished statement lingered in the air like a blade suspended overhead as neither of the ladies interrupted, but stood there in wait.
Whatever warning he was building toward, it was clearly important enough for him to savor.
The young man slowly shifted his gaze from Nadia to Talia and back again.
Then his lips began to spread.
Not into the familiar smirk they had grown accustomed to, neither was it an amused expression, or one of mockery.
What emerged instead was an expression which was far more disturbing.
A wide grin stretched across his face, pulling at both corners of his mouth until it looked almost unnatural. There was no warmth in it. No humor.
Only malice.
The expression transformed his entire appearance and energy, turning an already unsettling presence into something genuinely unnerving.
And somehow, that grin alone made both sisters feel as though the next words out of his mouth would be far worse than anything he had said so far.
"The other guy would just take over," he said with an almost casual shrug. "And in my book, that'd be something of a win."
The statement only deepened the confusion written across both sisters' faces.
Questions erupted within their minds almost immediately. Every answer he provided seemed to spawn three more mysteries in its place. Yet amidst the growing sea of uncertainty, one particular thought surfaced to the forefront with such force that neither woman managed to keep it to herself.
"There's another?" The question left both their mouths simultaneously.
For a brief moment, Talia and Nadia stood there wearing nearly identical expressions—a mixture of surprise and unmistakable confusion.
Realizing they had spoken in unison, both women quickly regained their composure, pushing their reactions aside and focusing on the implications of what they had just heard.
The young man's grin widened.
It was exactly the reaction he had hoped for.
"Of course there is," he replied, amusement dancing in his eyes. "And unlike the two of you, he's quite aware of the situation." He referred to Jason they knew as the answer only created more questions.
"Just how many personalities are in there?" Talia asked.
The very idea seemed absurd, yet every conversation with him made conventional explanations feel increasingly inadequate. Was Jason truly suffering from some severe form of dissociative identity disorder? Or was something far stranger at work?
Another possibility crept into her thoughts.
What if Jason's condition wasn't psychological at all?
"What if demons or evil spirits had somehow taken up residence within his body, disguising their existence behind what appeared to be fractured personalities?"§Given everything she had witnessed throughout her life, the notion felt disturbingly plausible.
As Talia considered the possibility, Nadia voiced a question of her own.
"How many pieces can a soul even fracture into?" Her gaze remained fixed on the young man.
The malicious grin from earlier had diminished into a smaller smirk, yet somehow the expression remained just as unsettling.
"Was the Lazarus Pit responsible for all of this?" Talia asked next, determined to pursue another avenue.
If Jason's resurrection had somehow damaged his soul, it might explain at least some of what they were witnessing.
The young man listened to the barrage of questions with visible amusement.
"Question after question," he mused. "You clearly want answers, don't you?"
Something in his tone caused both sisters to become more attentive.
For the first time, it sounded as though he might actually be considering cooperation.
Perhaps he intended to make a bargain.
Perhaps there was a condition attached.
Perhaps they were finally about to receive something useful.
The possibility was enough for both women to give a small nod.
Whatever arrangement he had in mind, they were at least willing to hear it.
The young man's smirk widened slightly.
Then, to their disappointment, he shattered their expectations immediately.
"The only thing I want from either of you," he said, leaning as far as his restraints allowed, "is to get out of here."
His eyes drifted between the two sisters.
"And I find it highly unlikely that either of you would grant that request."
"That's a given," Nadia replied without hesitation.
Her voice carried the firmness of a judge delivering a verdict.
"You're not leaving this cell."
Talia folded her arms.
"If anything," she added coldly, "you should prepare yourself for the possibility of never seeing daylight again."
The threat hung in the air.
Surprisingly, the young man didn't look discouraged.
If anything, he seemed entertained.
That, more than anything else, caused a faint knot of unease to tighten in both sisters' stomachs.
And that raised a troubling question neither woman was eager to voice aloud.
What exactly could he suggest that they might be willing to come to a compromise.
- - -
A/N:—
The mystery behind Jason's dissociated identities.
The three year void of which Jason has no recollection of.
What really happened on that day at Lian Yu.
It's all coming full circle.