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Dick hadn’t seen her at first, wasn’t able to until she had moved into view of the window and sat next to Damian on the couch— but that is, unmistakably, Lady Lazarus herself sitting next to his brother right now.
He can’t see her face, not since she’s still got her domino mask covering her eyes and her half mask pulled up to cover the lower half of her face. Not to mention her hood is still up too— all Dick can see of her hair is a few glimpses of white and black.
The look on Damian’s face is what captures his attention the most. Here his little brother is, sitting next to one of the most dangerous people they have a record of, and he looks happier than Dick has ever seen him before, more at ease with Lady Lazarus than with his own family. And what does that say about them?
Just then, a loud, modulated voice calls out to him, “Come on down from your perch, bird boy! Don’t you know it’s not nice to spy? You bats are all so nosy and impolite.”
Sighing, Dick jumps down and heads over to the now open window. No point in staying hidden up there when clearly Lady Lazarus knows he’s here.
“Came to find your missing Robin, hm?” She tilts her head. “He’s fine, as you can see. So you can leave now, he’ll come back when he’s ready.“
“Ah but see, I don’t think Batman will accept ‘being supervised by Lady Lazarus’ as safe conditions for Robin to be in, so actually I can’t leave now.” He replies.
“Well then do not tell father who I am with. Simply inform him I am with a… trusted friend.” Damian joins in the conversation.
“And are you?” Dick questions, “Is she a trusted friend? Robin, we don’t know her. She could hurt you.”
“She is right here, and I would never hurt him. I don’t hurt kids, and I don’t hurt Robins either.” Lady Lazarus scoffs.
“She speaks the truth. Ukhti would never bring me harm.” Damian affirms.
Lady Lazarus sighs, “You both should run along though. I don’t intend to be here when the rest of the bats arrive, and I’m assuming all of you have this location and the others are listening in over comms. Am I right, Nightwing? They’re already on their way, are they not?”
“Tell them there is no need. I am perfectly well. They do not need to come here, and you may leave.” Damian says firmly.
“It’s alright, tayir saghir. Go along back to the nest, we’ll see each other again.” Lady Lazarus nudges Damian towards Dick, and then in the blink of an eye she’s gone from the room.
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“You called her your sister.” Tim states once they’re back in the cave that night, “You called her ‘ukhti’, which means sister, right?”
Damian doesn’t answer him, staring resolutely ahead.
“If she’s your sister then Talia has another kid… is she Bruce’s as well?” Tim continues. This time Damian scoffs, but still, he doesn’t say anything.
“How did she just disappear like that?” Tim presses, unperturbed by the lack of answers.
Though this time, he does get an answer, “It is none of your business, Drake. Her information is not mine to tell. So stop asking.”
But now the curiosity is there. Tim will stop asking Damian questions, but he won’t be leaving this be.
Just who is Lady Lazarus?
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“Ah, I see the bats are out of the belfry! Or, out of the cave, as it is,” Lady Lazarus says, jumping down from a nearby rooftop. “You must have bats in your belfry, though, if you thought it was a good idea to get this close to my territory. Didn’t I tell you to stay away? Yet here you are, on the border! A bold move, little cuckoo bird. And you… I don’t think we’ve met before, are you Batgirl, or Spoiler?”
Now, Medea knows exactly which one this is. But the bats don’t need to know that, so it’s best to act like she isn’t fully aware it’s Stephanie Brown standing in front of her right now.
“Spoiler, pleased to meetcha!” Stephanie waves with a heavy dose of false cheer and enthusiasm.
Medea laughs, “No you aren’t,”
“Nope, not in the slightest,” Stephanie agrees.
“Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I have a schedule to keep. Shipments to stop, a certain crime boss to piss off… you know the drill!” Medea claps her hands together. “So, unfortunately, you’ll need to be going now! Have a nice trip,” a shadow opens up beneath Tim and Steph’s feet, and it’s disorienting as hell, and when the shadows recede they are left standing on the rooftop of a diner—
—halfway across the city from where they just were…
“Oh she’s funny,” Steph chuckles, shaking her head.
Tim only glares in the direction of Lady Lazarus’ territory.
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“Oohhh Roman! I’ve got a gift for you!” Medea singsongs as she steps over the bloody and unconscious bodies of Black Mask’s hired henchmen.
In her hands and resting against her shoulder is a rocket launcher.
She’s looking to expand her territory tonight, and cut back on Sionis’ while she’s at it, and she figures this’ll… help speed up negotiations!
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“Okay, I have a few theories—”
“Here we go,” Steph shakes her head with a grin.
“—shut up. I have a few theories on who Lady Lazarus could be,” Tim says to the group gathered around him at the table in the cave for a post post-patrol-debrief shenanigan session, as Steph has deemed it.
Sitting around the table and watching as Tim pulls up a slideshow for his theories are Steph, Babs, and Cass. Everyone else had left the cave already to do who knows what on their own, leaving the three young women to have a front row seat to tonight’s post debrief shenanigans.
Tim and his slideshow of theories do not disappoint.
“Okay, first theory—”
He goes on for a while, presenting arguments for each, some more outlandish than others, and the girls all have fun adding their own thoughts and arguments to his theories.
And then, he reaches his final theory on the slideshow.
“—she’s the ghost of Medea Todd come back to haunt us all.”