A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN.
❪ Howl's Moving Castle (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki ❫

𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙-𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖊𝖉 𝖇𝖔𝖝

𝕺FELIA NARVAEZ HAS BEEN DYING SINCE BEFORE SHE WAS BORN.

Everybody is, in a way. The very moment a child takes that first, gasping breath before bursting into tears, their lungs filling with so much air they could burst, a mother's arms cradling the fragile, newborn body, a clock starts ticking — a commencement, yes, but a countdown, too. Human bodies are not meant to last forever. The cells of the body divide themselves and mutate and perish with a whimper. Oxygen, what keeps humans alive, and the nitrogen that comes with each inhale, morph and shift into molecules that oxidize the organism. Every breath kills; surviving means dying. Despite the battles genes fight against it, the flesh ages and deteriorates and rots.

Ofelia's body has simply had a head start over most. Her cells grew a ticking time bomb into her chest, trapped it behind her ribs before she was even out of her mother's womb, every breathing moment spent never knowing which beat would be the one to detonate it and blow her to pieces.

It made for a childhood of breathlessness and a fluttering pulse, wheezing fits and bright blue asthma inhalers that got lost in her backpack and a sickly pale skin, as cold to the touch as ice. There were countless E.R. trips and hospital stays and doctor appointment after doctor appointment that only ended up bringing misdiagnoses left and right, something else going wrong as soon as they could breathe a sigh of relief.

Her heart, her poor, weak, tired heart simply gave up on her before anyone could do anything about it.

By the time the doctors realized their mistakes, it was too late — the bomb was going off, and it was taking Ofelia with it.

She should have died. She very nearly did.

And then — she didn't.

Ofelia didn't die, and then Ofelia lived, and then Ofelia's dying heart was pulled from her chest by a surgeon's expert hands and a new one got sewn to her in its place.

What do you do when you are alive, but supposed to be dead? What do you do with your life when you have already given up on it? What do you do when you are born again?

What do you do when your new heart is not just a heart, but something else? Something containing strange, extraordinary power, beating just for yourself?

All Ofelia can do, in light of everything, is her best.

If only that were enough.

✶   ✶   ✶

OFELIA NARVAEZ   HELLHOUND

feel like prey / feel like praying

✶

DICK GRAYSON   NIGHTWING

falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

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Ema Belyakova Black Crow

Donna Troy Troia

Wally West Flash

Karen Beecher-Duncan Bumblebee

Roy Harper Arsenal

Artemis Crock Tigress

Garth Tempest

Lilith Clay Omen

Kaldur'ahm Aquaman

✶

and featuring . . .
Jason Todd Red Hood
Tim Drake Red Robin
Barbara Gordon Oracle
Damian Wayne Robin
Mal Duncan
Zatanna Zatara
John Constantine Hellblazer
Nimue Inwudu Madame Xanadu
Bruce Wayne Batman

✶

✶  okay so hiii everyone welcome! before we start id like to clarify that this is a bit of a wild card, as in: im making shit up, okay. this fic is not based on the TV show Titans, so if anyones clicked on this expecting that, sorry! ive never watched past episode one, i dont know what thats all about like at all. but if you love Dick (ha) youre more than welcome to stick around, okay, this fic is all about loving Dick Grayson. this is also not based on the TV show Young Justice, not really, which i love and its obvious i took stuff from it (Artemis and Kaldur), but thats about it; it does not follow anything else from that shows universe. this is comics-based, but also not really. what i mean: im making shit up based on the comics, but im cherry-picking stuff from different timelines and deciding what stays. which really is how DC continuity seems to work atp, so, really, im being consistent. TL;DR: you dont have to have ever picked up a comic book to read this fanfic!!! it doesnt follow any comics storyline and does not require more than basic knowledge about who these characters are.

✶  for people who know what the fuck im going on about, consider most basic things canon, TBH (minus Artemis and Kaldur, who I obviously stole from the show!yj roster and placed here because why not, i love them. i didnt think M'gann really fit here, so sorry to her, and i much prefer Kon in Tim's age group/comics!yj—what noooo this has nothing to do with the fact that they're dating in this universe, um, but yeah on an unrelated note expect a cameo from my annoying 90s kid at a bat family dinner or something!). im just pretending Flashpoint wasnt like A Thing That Rebooted The Universe so its all kiiind of in one continuity, or as well as all that can fit together anyway, new 52 mostly included, instead of just knowing everything pre-Flashpoint happened in a different universe through memories of their other lives or whatever the hell (which is kind of messy and very annoying to me, so). no Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan, Doomsday Clock [EYE ROLLLLL] bullshit here, which im sure Alan Moore somewhere out there really appreciates and hes currently popping open a bottle of champagne. lastly, fair warning that im more versed on pre-Flashpoint comics than the most modern stuff and i very superficially keep up with whats going on in new comics, and it probably shows.

✶  Ema Belyakova is another oc, btw. youre not crazy if you thought wait who tf is that supposed to be.

✶  things i think are stupid arent canon here though, because why would they, fuck you DC. you guys can say goodbye to Ric Grayson and whatever happened in Joker War [Colin Farrell Penguin New Jersey voice] holy god what are you showin meeeeeeeeee come onnnn

✶  the original five-and-then-others teen titans are back together as the titans now (and yes im pretending Artemis and Kaldur were part of the TT at some point, at least as reserves or for a few handful of missions, pre-New Teen Titans 1980, just like im doing for Ofelia and Ema, in the same vein Lilith and Mal and Karen were in the og...) like in their 2016 title, minus the whole reason why they team up in rebirth... because, again, im pretending Flashpoint didnt reboot the universe and therefore didnt erase Wally out of existence for like five years and there wasnt any Mr. Twister situation making them sacrifice their memories or whatever the hell that was in Titans Hunt, i dont even know. the (teen) titans' pre-Flashpoint history is all canon unless, as stated above, i think something is dumb.

✶  ages! Dick and Ofelia are 25/26 (as are most of the titans, more or less). Ema is a year younger than them. for reference, Bruce is around 43, Jason is 21 (has been back for give or take 2 years), Cass is 19, Tim and Steph are 18, Duke is 16, Damian is 10/11, Babs is 27/28.

✶  anyhow. now that thats all out of the way. this is gonna be a pretty character-driven story, TBH, very light on the actual plot. i know the summary makes it seem like not much has happened yet for our girl but this is not the case at all lmao i just tried to keep it brief and vague so i can tell the actual story later lol. Ofelia is actually pretty experienced in the superhero community at this point, but she is in a very vulnerable place rn emotionally and has sort of been through a rollercoaster. this story catches up to her in the aftermath of a lot of Stuff shes been dealing with and right before a lot of other STUFF shes going to have to deal with, and we're gonna be unraveling all her shit together 🤝 yay!

✶  lastly, i wanna dedicate this to my gorgeous gorgeous friends purehcroine and elysianfieId for listening to me talk about this one story for, um, probably months now? lol. they're amazing and i love them and go read all their stuff cause theyre insanely talented. AND of courseeee to master of all trades bayports who !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! made that GORGEOUS GORGEOUS cover you can see up there + 2 others that you can see if you scroll down a little, which you should do asap cause, again, theyre very gorgeous. cannot thank them enough for helping me out with these amazing, super super cute covers and for listening to me talk about my bullshit, theyre theeeee best of the best and you HAVE to go to their profile immediately too, cause everything they do from writing to graphics is so fucking good. like i said, master of all trades. love you guys sm 💗💗💗💗💗

✶ if anybody read this far, thank you!!! hope you enjoyed this and are as excited to see where this goes as i am to write it. letting me know your thoughts would be very very appreciated 🫶 have a nice day and take care yall, xx

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YOU CAN HAVE MY HEART
IF YOU HAVE THE STOMACH TO TAKE IT.

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