JADA AND HARCOURT WALKED INTO THE ROOM WITH A PATCHED UP AND UNCONSCIOUS JUDOMASTER. Adebayo had ended up shooting the guy to 'save' Peacemaker after Judomaster had gotten loose, much to Jada's dismay. Jada glanced over at Adebayo, who seemed to have a worried look on her face.

Harcourt look at Jada before she sighed, pulling out a chair for her to sit down next to Adebayo. "And this time you didn't balk, huh?" Harcourt spoke up, ending the awkward silence.

"Do you think he's gonna die?" Adebayo questioned in concern.

"Hmm, probably," Harcourt answered honestly and Jada nodded and shrugged, not minding her bluntness.

"I'm not cut out for this shit," Adebayo admitted.

Harcourt sighed again. "The first time I killed someone, I didn't have my period for three months," Harcourt told her.

"And then it gets easier?" Adebayo asked.

"No, not really," the blonde answered.

"But it's good it hurts," Harcourt assured her.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want you ending up like Amanda Waller, where you would start treating human life like a piece of trash you could throw away at any second," Jada added onto the conversation, a peeved expression on her face at the thought of Waller.

Adebayo sucked in a breath at her sentence, not knowing how to reply to that. "None of this sits right with me," she ended up saying. "First, I manipulated Vigilante into going into prison and killing Peacemaker's father, and now this."

"Back up. What?" Harcourt interrupted.

"You sent Vigilante into jail to kill Peacemaker's father?" Jada questioned, her tone rising with every word.

"Is...is that bad?" Adebayo asked slowly.

"Dios mío."

-♡-

"Every time I turn around, one of you is doing something fucked up! I thought Waller gave me soldiers! Instead, it's the fucking Apple Dumpling Gang!" Murn yelled once he found out what Adebayo had done. Jada scoffed quietly to herself, not knowing why she was the one being yelled at when she had done nothing. And, she couldn't help but think about what Harcourt had told her about Murn.

Economos started to laugh, "Classic pull."

"And who are the Apple Dumpling Gang?" Harcourt asked.

"Incompetent dinguses!" Murn answered angrily.

"But they always triumph in the end," Economos added smugly.

"Fuck you, John!" Murn shouted, pointing right at him.

"Jesus."

"You told Vigilante to kill Peacemaker's father?" Murn then questioned Adebayo, wanting to know the specifics.

"I didn't tell him to, I just kind of put the idea in his head," Adebayo explained.

"That Peacemaker would be better off without his father?" Murn asked.

"Well, his father is gonna go to the authorities and tell 'em how we switched out the fingerprints. I was just trying to make the hard choice," Adebayo said, closing her eyes.

"Seeing as we're already losing Peacemaker's trust, how's he gonna feel when he finds out we manipulated his best friend into killing his father?" Murn's voiced echoed.

"Actually, that'd be Eagly," Economos corrected.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just he claims that Eagly, that that's his best friend," Economos told him.

"Yeah, Peacemaker didn't really seem to care when Vigilante was getting brutally tortured when we got kidnapped," Jada said with a shrug, helping Economos out.

Murn just stared at Economos in disbelief. "You said, 'best friend', okay?" Economos exclaimed. "I'm just making sure we're all on the same page, in case someone here thinks that Adebayo convinced Eagly to kill Peacemaker's father!"

"Who would think that?"

"Maybe Harcourt."

"Fuck you!" Harcourt responded immediately.

"Why is everybody 'fucking you' to me?" Economos questioned.

"I'm gonna believe she mentally manipulated the pet eagle into killing his father?" Harcourt asked, her eyes narrowed at the man.

"You're gullible! I call in sick all the time, and I'm lying!" Economos argued.

"I know you're lying, I just don't give a fuck! I'm not stupid!"

"Yeah, that's true, we've talked about it before," Jada added with another shrug.

"Whose side are you on?" Economos queried loudly since Jada had been helping the both of them out in the last minute. The woman just shrugged for the umpteenth time, not really putting a lot of care into the conversation.

"Peacemaker isn't stupid either!" Murn cut in, going back to the original topic. "But you seem to think he is," he gestured to Adebayo.

"I don't think he's stupid," Adebayo agreed.

"He'll know exactly what you tried to do. Not only that, his father, the goddamn White Dragon, is a trained killer! He could kill Vigilante, and without Vigilante, we're taking on the butterflies one man down!"

"Half a man down. The guy's a psychopath," Harcourt joked without any enthusiasm in her tone.

"More like a sociopath," Jada corrected.

"He can't be a sociopath if he's in love with you," Economos argued.

"He's not fucking in love with me," Jada said, getting defensive.

"He kinda is. But that doesn't mean he can't be a sociopath," Adebayo said with a shrug.

"He's not, though!" Jada exclaimed angrily.

Murn chuckled sardonically, ignoring them, "It's the five of us against a damn alien invasion. We need a psychopath."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Murn," Adebayo apologized.

Murn didn't reply to her and instead asked Economos, "Can you get Vigilante out of the system before he screws us worse than we're already screwed?"

Economos got up and went over to his computer. He sighed, "I don't even know this guy's name," Economos said.

"White male, 5'11, thirties, green eyes," Adebayo helped out as they all walked over.

"His name is Adrian Chase," Jada outright said, not keeping it a secret any longer since there was no use. They all gave her a surprised look. "What?"

"How do you know that?" Harcourt asked, her hands on her hips.

"Goff took off his helmet down in the cave and he told us his name," Jada answered nonchalantly.

"And you didn't tell us after?" Murn asked slowly, his eyes wide.

"What? He wanted to keep it a secret and I didn't think it was important, geez," Jada said, holding her hands up in defense.

Economos began to type on his computer before he pulled up Adrian's picture and information. "Found him. Adrian Chase, the Vigilante."

"That's him," Jada confirmed.

"Hey, wasn't he our busboy at Fennel Fields?" Harcourt asked, her eyebrows scrunched up and her eyes narrowed as she looked at his picture.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot he was for a second. Yeah, he was," Jada verified.

"So...you knew all of this information and didn't tell us?" Harcourt asked her, her eyebrows now raised.

"I literally just told you, he wanted to keep his identity a secret," Jada told her, defending herself.

"And since when did you give a fuck about what he wanted?" Harcourt responded, crossing her arms.

"Since now," Jada said, getting annoyed.

"Does that mean you're gonna fuck him like he wants, now?" Harcourt challenged, making Adebayo and Economos giggle quietly.

"What?! No, okay, I cared for one second but not anymore. And he doesn't want to fuck me, he's just being an ass," Jada argued, shaking her head.

"Yeah. Sure," Harcourt said sarcastically.

"Enough with the bullshit!" Murn yelled, making them all look at him. "Reyes, go bail him out of jail."

"What? Why me?" Jada asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Because he likes you the most out of all of us," Murn explained.

"Told you," Harcourt muttered, making Jada roll her eyes.

-♡-

After Jada had asked to bail out Adrian at the prison, she waited for him to come out in the car. Once she saw him walk out, she rolled down the window to show her face. "What...what are you doing here?" Adrian asked with a slightly shocked tone. He wasn't expecting her to be the one to show up even though she was the one he wanted to see the most, apart from Peacemaker.

"I'm here to take you home," Jada answered casually. "Get in."

Adrian slowly limped over towards the car before he got in the passenger seat, a depressed look on his face. "He's still alive," he told her, his glasses starting to fog up. "I think I might have made things worse," he admitted, sadness in his tone.

Jada looked at him, her lips in a thin line. She then started to drive off, the car ride silent for a few moments before she finally whispered, "It's okay."

"What?" Adrian asked with a sniffle, not hearing her.

"I said it's okay," she said louder, looking over at him. "You, uh, you tried your best," she told him, being nice for once.

"I should have tried harder."

"No," she immediately said, making him furrow his brows. "It's not your responsibility to make Chris feel better. He doesn't give a fuck about any of us, so you shouldn't feel obligated to always help him."

"And you do?" Adrian replied.

Jada was taken aback by his question. "What?"

"It's not like you care about anyone here," he said, still hurt by all of her words prior.

"I-I do," she hesitated, her nose scrunched up.

"Fine, do you care about me, then?" Adrian questioned, taking his glasses off since they were fully fogged up.

She blinked rapidly, not liking this conversation since she hated talking about any kind of her feelings. "Adrian, I...I don't even know you. That's not a fair question," she responded, her eyebrows scrunched up. "I mean, you're nice to me and all, but...I've only just met you."

Adrian licked his lips, looking down. "What about the rest of the group?"

"I — They're, uh...I-I like them," she stammered, shaking her head at her own answer. Adrian scoffed quietly. "What?"

"That guy...Rick Flag, the one Peacemaker was talking about. He must have hurt you pretty bad, didn't he?" Adrian asked, changing the subject.

"What does he have to do with this conversation?" Jada questioned, her lip curling slightly at the mention of Rick.

"He hurt you so bad that now you're scared to admit you care for people. He fucked you up," Adrian went up, making Jada jaw clench as she tried to keep her eyes on the road. "But he's dead. So you can move on from your relationship with him and —"

Jada slammed on her breaks in the middle of the road, making Adrian pause. Good thing it was late because there weren't any other cars on the road. "I have moved on. A long time ago," she told him, staring straight into his eyes darkly.

"Well, it doesn't seem like it," Adrian replied, not backing down. "You're letting him control your life. It's the reason why you wanna kill Peacemaker and why you just hate everyone else!"

"That is not why!" Jada yelled, her voice cracking as her face began to burn up from being overwhelmed.

"Then why can't you admit to caring about anyone? Why aren't you happy that Peacemaker killed the guy that cheated on you?"

"Because! Because..." Jada trailed off as she looked away from him, not wanting to admit the answer. She had moved on from loving Rick a while ago, that was true, but she hadn't moved on from the fact that he had betrayed her trust so easily. He was the first and last person she had ever trusted, and she never wanted to trust anyone ever again. But because he was the first person she trusted, she just couldn't let that go.

"Because you're scared to trust anyone else, aren't you?" Adrian finished for her, practically voicing her thoughts. Jada slowly looked over at him, her brows furrowed at how he knew. "I trust Peacemaker. Even though it may not seem like it, I know he has my back. He's my best friend."

Jada didn't answer since she was putting so much energy into not letting a tear fall in front of him. This was exactly the reason why she didn't like talking about her feelings, let alone her relationship with Rick Flag in a non-angry setting. Yeah, Adrian was right. Rick did fuck her up. He betrayed her and cheated, making her so much closed off than she originally was. He made more of a bitch, making everyone's snarky comments about her even more truthful. It felt like it was her against the world.

"Jada?" Adrian said once she hadn't answered for a few moments.

She let out a sigh, licking her lips. "Rick Flag was my best friend before we ever dated. He was the first person that I actually felt comfortable with. The first person that I...trusted," she began, not knowing why she was about to tell him all this. She felt a sense of...comfortability with him for some reason, although she wouldn't use that word. Or even say that sentence out loud. But even though he was a killer that had sociopathic tendencies, she wasn't at all afraid by him. "But he betrayed my trust," she continued. "He cheated on me with this girl he was tasked to watch over that ended up turning into this supervillain. I was able to get over my...my love for him, but I was still angry about the fact that he had completely taken over my mind and I fell for a stupid guy's tricks."

"I'm sure he loved you in the beginning. It's not easy not to," Adrian told her, making her give him a look. "Sorry. Go on."

She cleared her throat, continuing, "From then on, I just kinda...stopped trying to care for anything. For anyone. I mean, I care about my job and my cats or whatever—"

"Awwww, you have cats?" Adrian interrupted as he made a pouty face. She gave him yet another look, causing him to say, "Sorry, sorry."

"Yeah, anyway, I just kinda stopped giving a shit for anyone. And I don't care what anyone thinks about me because of it," she finished with a shrug, putting her foot on the gas pedal to drive the car again.

"But that's not true, though. I mean, you still obviously care about people or else you wouldn't be trying to save the world right now," Adrian challenged.

"Okay, aren't you the guy that doesn't care that he kills people for no reason?" Jada replied, arching a brow at him.

"I do care! I care about the fact that they committed a crime! Which is a reason for their deaths!" Adrian argued, making Jada roll her eyes playfully. "What my point is, though, you shouldn't be afraid to put trust in people just because one guy broke your trust. That's letting a man dictate your life and that's some patriarchal shit I don't fuck with."

She contemplated his words, knowing that he was right. She didn't want give him that satisfaction, though, with her stubborn nature. "Are you only saying this because you want to fuck me?" she queried, not being completely serious with her question. But she did want to know whether he was actually flirting with her or not, or just being a dumbass.

"No, are you crazy? Fucking you would be a complete waste!" he exclaimed, making her furrow her brows in confusion. "I'd want to date you and then marry you so that I could see you every day for the rest of my life," he told her with a goofy smile.

Jada let out a low chuckle, not being able to fight back her own smile on her face since she couldn't fight the fact that she was flattered. "You're crazy," she told him, partially pretending it was a joke.

"And you're beautiful," he replied in complete awe with her.

She gave him a look. "Would you stop that?"

"What? I can't just not say that."

"You're being serious?"

"Duhhhhh."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"No reason."

Now that was a very personal conversation heheh. It seems like Adrian knows how to get under Jada's skin...in a good way though since the conversation was a step in the right direction for Jada's arc.

Hopefully you liked their deep conversation!! Remember to vote and comment your thoughts! Thanks for reading!