*Changes have been made to the hero uniform of Spice/Adelaide

Excuse me for a while
While I'm wide-eyed
And I'm so down caught in the middle
I've excused you for a while
While I'm wide-eyed
And I'm so down caught in the middle
∞

I always know where she goes when it comes to him.

As I mentioned in chapter three, Reece and my mother got married when I was eight and Halo was eleven. Reece was a lawyer for Wayne Enterprises at the time. At a gala, Ell met a boy named Jason who was shy, but rough around the edges with the kind of attitude which attracted her. 

I would be forced to stand perfect and pretty whilst she disappeared with him, before his sudden death. Jason and Bruce had taken a trip to Bosnia where an explosion happened, killing many, including Jason Todd.

Ellery fell apart.

A jack of all trades and a master of none, but she was a master at many before. After his death she started hanging out in Crime Alley with people she met through Jason, doing drugs and other things.

When she came home she'd be crying and wearing one of his jackets. My mother would tell her to get over it. In the same way I scratch my neck until I bleed, she flung her hand over candles until she was red.

When Jason Todd died, so did a piece of Ellery Jackson.

Never to live again.

I hate Crime Alley with a passion. When we lived on its outskirts within the Hispanic community before Reece found us, I felt like I was still in Colombia.

So when I land on the roof of a shabby, seemingly abandoned apartment building because I know my sister will be there, I have to take a few deep breaths.

Like most of these establishments, there is a rusty disgusting fire escape to the side. Jason probably used it a few times to escape the land lord when he was squatting here after his mother died.

Sure enough, when I reach his window and kneel down, Ellery is sitting cross-legged on the floor.

She doesn't move when I struggle to slide the dusty creaking window up so I can slip in. It's gross and disgusting and reflects Jason Todd's gruff personality perfectly.

I was too young to have much of an opinion on him at the time. I thought he was nice looking and kind, but my mother influenced me to judge him because of his childhood.

He died before I could shift that opinion. It only changed after.

"Haven't been here in a while," I say lightly, closing the window behind me. The livingroom, kitchen and dining combined is the size of my bedroom. The is only a couch, a coffee table and a couple of empty broken frames and beer bottles. The carpet is a dark grey, stained in most places with mysterious colours. There is mould on the ceiling and holes in the walls.

It reminds me of our home in Colombia.

"Let's go home," I say, and I mean our new castle.

Ellery shakes her head, "Just a little longer," she whispers. She shifts, pulling her knees up to rest beneath her chest. 

Then, in a gesture I have seen many times, she raises her hand with white-glowing eyes and casts an illusion with a fluent flick of fingers. 

I get caught in it and suddenly, I can see what she sees in this shabby place.

Fewer holes, less mould and more furniture. There's a noisy heater in the corner pumping out hot air as Jason and Ellery sit propped up on the couch with a cigarette in-between them. Her laptop is open on the coffee table and they appear to be watching that old legendary movie about the kids who go looking for treasure to save their town. It snows outside and Ellery moves just a little bit closer to him, blanket creasing in the dip between their shaking thighs.

"I see," is all I can say. She doesn't speak, just watches the memory fade piece by piece until we are back in our Jason-less world.

"Nightwing told you?" Her voice is clear, but hollow.

"Nightwing told me," I confirm, turning away from her to stare out the window, "I'm not mad about it, but I think I would have come on my own quite happily."

She snorts. I don't know if that's her trying to bait me to turn around and meet her eyes so she can cast, or if she's generally coming at me.

"You disagree?"

"Of course," she sounds like she's standing up, grunting with the effort, "Being a hero with a hero boyfriend doesn't exactly fit in with your perfect quota-"

"If we do it perfectly," I interrupt, "then it is perfect."

That thought was on my mind when I left the mountain. I have divulged that yes, this does not fit the curve...but perhaps that is because I have been comparing to the wrong curve.

"A couple, perfect in body, mind and soul by societal standards and for each other. By day they are royal to their faculty, walk the halls ethereal and sit in thrones the subjects bow to. At night they are still a pair, merely more dashing. Not only are they sublime in the sunlight but supreme beneath the moon. Silhouettes across a night skyline. The flawless shape of young heroes. What is more perfect than a couple whom fits that divulged by society? A couple who also fits that divulged in worship and dreams. Perfect students, perfect teenagers, perfect couple, perfect saviours."

Tim and I can still be it. 

"What...the hell?"

My head turns from the window and I come to face my sister, wide-eyed, staring at me with both fear and astonishment.

I flinch when she reaches out and grabs my face, tilting it up and peering into my eyes. We both share the same purple. Whatever she's looking for, she doesn't seem to find it.

She releases my face with a wary frown still on hers, then backs away from me.

"I thought this team would help you," she snaps.

"Help me?" I respond.

"Yes. You and your messed up head."

With those words she shoves passed me, wrenches the window open and climbs out. She zooms up into the air before I can follow.

Messed up head. 

I'm not messed up. There is nothing wrong with striving towards a goal.

 {A lion, a lion, roars would you not listen? If a child, a child cries would you not forgive them?}

"What's her problem?"

Tim's voice- or, Robin's, I suppose -scares me enough to make me jump. I peer down the fire escape and see him sitting on the next level. I smile at him before climbing out the window and descending the steps.

"You know exactly what her problem is," I say lightly, stopping right in front of him. He is dressed as Robin, looking ready for anything. 

"Yeah..." he trails off, looking up at the building, "I used to follow you here when you'd chase after her. Just in case."

My heart skips a little beat as I imagine him scaling the rooftops whilst I travel through Gotham. There are easy routes to take which avoid the unsavories of Crime Alley; routes I learnt in the few years I lived around here.

"That's sweet," is all I can think of to say.

There are so many questions I want to ask; when, how, why. Does this mean Bruce is Batman? Has Tim ever been hurt violently? Has he fought the Joker? Scarecrow? Poison Ivy?

Instead of asking any of those questions, I find myself stepping forward, grabbing his chin and kissing his cheek.

"I'm so proud of you," I say, wrapping my arms around his neck. The gesture seems to surprise him, and he stutters a bit, before his arms come to close around me gently.

When I stepped out of my house with the intent to join a superhero team, I did not expect it to lead me to Crime Alley at night, hugging my boyfriend on a rusty unstable stairwell in the moonlight. 

I rise up from the platform and move out into the air. Tim doesn't let go of my hand until I'm out in the open, just hovering by the rail. Then, he reaches down to his belt and removes his grapple gun.

"Coming back to the cave? We have a mission," he tempts.

I can't imagine anything more perfect than going on a mission with him- Uh, them. 

I smile, "Of course."

He fires the grapple and it latches onto the corner of a building in the distance. Just like that, he goes racing off into the night and I dash to follow.

"I'm sorry about trying to catch you," he says when we land on the roof.

"It's fine," I tell him, "You were just doing your job."

"Yeah but you were trying to save Livinia," he responds immediately. The reminder of that glass vial hitting the floor is a direct knife twist. "Sorry," he says, noticing my expression.

We push on, strolling towards the next building.

"Does this mean... I mean, if you're Robin and Jason was Robin and Dick is Nightwing...Does that make Bruce-"

He looks at me wearily.

"Right," I nod, "I shouldn't ask."

That response seems to worry him and he frantically shakes his head, "I-It's not that, exactly...I just-"

"Tim," I turn and grab his shoulders firmly, before I remember who I'm talking to. "I mean...Robin. Chill, it's fine. Not your identity to reveal."

The words seem to relieve him, probably because they're the ones he was trying to say.

"Do any of the others know?" I ask. He knows who I mean.

He shakes his head, "I think Jake suspects, but other than that, no."

Of course our most analytical friend would notice. 

"I can't believe I never caught on," I admit. "It all makes sense now; the secrets, the sudden disappearances, the tiredness, the injuries...I can't believe you've been doing all of this and going to school and training for a company." And dating me. 

Bashful as always, he just smiles at the rooftop.

"I'm proud of you too you know."

I scoff as we reach the rooftop of the Zeta building, "For what? Being a thief?"

"No," he shakes his head, "For being a hero."

Every part of me wants to argue with him. I'm not a hero, I haven't saved anybody; I couldn't even save my own sister.

I keep my mouth shut though, not wanting to admit it.

"Ladies first," he says, gesturing to the open tiles. I smile at him, feeling the nerves rise about facing that team again.

Just remember to be calm and collected. Content. Indifferent. 

I step into the Zeta.

"Recognised, Spice; B23." 

Nightwing has already changed my designation. I walk in with Robin arriving behind me. He's B20; two people between us. I wonder who?

"Everyone," Nightwing begins. The Team are standing there, all the people Ell and I rescued from Black mask, along with Blue Beetle and that same civilian standing at the computers. "As you know, this is Spice. She will be joining the Team effective immediately."

I don't know what to say. Eleven people are staring at me, most smiling with Fish boy looking apprehensive.

"Do they have to call me Spice?" I ask Nightwing.

"Yeah! Her name is Adelaide," Beast Boy cuts in, "Not everyone keeps their name a secret." He looks accusingly at Nightwing and Robin.

He makes me smile and it seems to break some of the ice.

Robin nudges me, "Tell them about your self."

If he were not here I don't think I would be. This situation is...uncomfortable. 

"He's right, my name's Adelaide," soft smile, "I'm fifteen, I'm from Colombia, my sister is Angel Wings."

"Oh!" Miss Martian perks up, staring at me with wide eyes, "You're Halo's sister! The ballerina!"

"You're a ballerina!?" Wondergirl exclaims, flying straight towards me. "That is so cool!" 

Miss Martian starts to reprimand Fish Boy for something he said. Beast Boy and Blue Beetle walk up behind Wondergirl- Cassie, she tells me.

Everyone is talking over one another and I feel Tim discreetly place his hand on my back.

This will be perfect. 

∞
Yeah, I might seem so strong
Yeah, I might speak so long
I've never been so wrong
I might seem so strong
Yeah, I might speak so long
I've never been so wrong