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[outstandingbalance]

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[outstandingbalance]

How do people usually find out about it?

[She says it with a frown. At least she has an idea where he disappears to now, though.]

[dickbats]

They don't. Not without a whole mess of trust.

[Though he amends it a moment later:]

Amelia knows, though. She's the girl I train. She just might be more into this stuff than we are.

[outstandingbalance]

I don't think I've met her.

[She tactfully doesn't ask what he means by this stuff.]

Well, I'm here. And I'm ready to see whatever it is you want me to see.

[dickbats]

You'd like her. She's one of the good ones. [Natasha doesn't have to ask for details. Dick's proud enough to volunteer them.] Always trying to find a way to find justice here.

When things were at their worst in the attacks? She flew over to every attack site looking for survivors. Purest heart I've seen in a long time.

[As he talks, he escorts her to a catacomb network, a near pitch black that doesn't bother his pale eyes in the slightest.]

Can you see all right? I've got some torches around if it gives you trouble.

[outstandingbalance]

I have pretty good night vision these days. As long as there's a little light, I should be fine.

[Even if she couldn't, she could feel her way better than she used to be able to.]

How deep does this go?

[dickbats]

There's a couple of rooms. It's not much, but it's not a bad home.

[He pauses, making a sharp right turn into a more open space. This one has several banquet tables lined up, filled with monster victims. They're all ostensibly alive, victims of the soul-eater type.]

Okay, here's the part where I start with "don't judge me," and end with "I can explain."

[outstandingbalance]

[There's a long moment before Natasha responds to that, taking her time absorbing the scene. She's not one to allow an intense emotional reaction. Especially when it might bias her judgment.

But it's hard not to expect the worst.]

I'm listening.

[Her tone is low and serious.]

If you can explain this, now's your chance.

[dickbats]

[He pulls off his cowl for this one. At least he's past the part of it that usually involves a ton of denial. Amelia's reactions already clued him in on the abnormalities involved.]

Look. This thing's been affecting people since this whole monster business started. And the ones that end up like this are the only ones who've still got a shot. Physically, there's nothing wrong with them. They have pulses and heartbeats. They can still digest food. They're still alive.

But if I leave them out there, someone's going to assume they're already gone and finish them off. I'm keeping them safe until we've come up with a cure for it.

[And because it makes him feel so good to keep a collection like this. It's satisfying in a way nothing else has ever been.]

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha might be one of those people. She has the experience of eating a soul before. She knows there's no cure. On the other hand, she doesn't want to stop him if he has more to say—she doesn't want to be oppositional if it's not if there's nothing to be accomplished by it.

He's not hurting anyone by keeping them here, she supposes. Though he could be feed others.]

So you keep them here, feed them, clean up after them? Do you have any idea how you'll help them?

[dickbats]

[He lifts one shoulder in a shrug.]

I've been trying different things on and off since the start. No luck yet.

[a small, lopsided smile forces its way onto his face as he attempts to make light of something more serious.]

Amelia thinks it's a compulsion. A bunch of her friends are obsessed with collecting things. I used to tell her she was wrong about it. But that time I had to be a vampire? I didn't pick up anyone.

Can't say I really know what the deal is anymore.

[outstandingbalance]

[She frowns at that, glancing around the room again.]

I have heard of goblins collecting things before, though people is stretching it a little. It's an interesting theory, though. What we turn into can get into our heads.

[Her mouth tightens a little.]

Why do I get the feeling this isn't all you wanted to show me down here?

[dickbats]

That's because you've got good instincts. There's more. This is just the most important part.

[He strokes one's hair, fondly.]

Nygma got lucky a few weeks ago. Killed me pretty hard. I lost one of them in the time it took me to come back. I figure, since we've been doing such a good job looking out for one another lately, I might need to arrange for a housesitter in case I take another unexpected trip.

I keep the ones that aren't so whole in the next room down the hall. For a while, I was trying to find a way to harness whatever brings us back to do it for them... But lately, it's just been a fridge stash that I hand out to friends. You can raid it if you're hungry.

[There's a flatness to his tone as he explains that part, though. Failure.]

[outstandingbalance]

[She sighs at that, stepping closer to lay a hand on his shoulder. She might not like what she sees here, and it might say something unsettling about how Dick deals with failure, but he's still... something. A friend?

Someone who didn't belong some place like this.]

You trust me with something like that? I have to admit, this isn't quite what I had in mind. Most people don't trust me with—with people like this.

[dickbats]

[His head tilts at her.]

Nat, I'd trust you with the world. You're the best friend I've got here. You don't know what it did to me what I thought they sent you back...

It's stupid. And I know you can't remember. But you kept me going every time I was close to giving up.

[He'd kiss her again, but she wouldn't want that. Natasha's a work-first play-later kind of girl. He clears his throat.]

Um. We can -- go on. If you wanted the rest of the tour.

[outstandingbalance]

I didn't come down here to stop after the first surprise, Dick. I want to see all of it.

[She gives his shoulder another squeeze before letting her hand fall away.]

Lead the way.

[dickbats]

[The squeeze is appreciated, more than she knows. But he pulls away stiffly.]

Be careful. You'll hurt yourself if you grab the wrong spot.

[He takes her past the next cavern opening. There's a stench from that room, the smell of death decaying. She already knows what's there; he doesn't feel obligated to show it off.

Instead, he brings her to a more private space. The walls are lined with chalky notes. Articles from news publications over the past year are taped in some sequence, from "mysterious new arrivals awash near Vandare river" through "a new monster menace" and beyond.

There's a poster on the opposite end of the room, advertising "The Flying Graysons". It was a gift, wished into existence by a friend who never seemed to stick around long enough to realize how important he actually was.

Beneath the poster, a tally:
| - refused sacrifice. set on fire
|| - crowd control went badly. trampled?? maybe something else.
||| - vampire + wood]

I've been keeping a journal since we got here. It's useful when I think something's happened that's hitting our heads badly. I like to think it keeps me sharper than I'd be if there wasn't documentation.

[Without commenting on the decor, he pulls a small book from a place on a handmade shelf. It's a leatherbound journal, singed at the bottom with some old burn marks.]

Some of it's pretty personal, but. I was thinking that maybe I could jog your memory if you had a way to think back on what it was like when we first got here. We ended up stuck in some mines together. Came out to each other by accident.

[outstandingbalance]

Jog my memory. So you still think I'm the same Natasha you met before, just... wiped clean somehow?

[She sounds unconvinced by his theory, though if anything, it's because she finds that particular theory too attractive herself. Somehow it seems more likely than going home and being brought back again—the other option is that they could be from different realities—maybe just slightly different.

All the more reason not to get too invested in the theory.]

I don't want to disappoint you again, Dick.

[dickbats]

I don't think so. I know it. I've dealt with alternate realities before. There's always something different about other dimensions. You're the same person. And you're holding on to the answer that'll unlock this whole case. I can feel it.

And even if it doesn't do anything for you... At least you won't have to wonder what you got into the last time around.

[outstandingbalance]

I really hope you're right about that. [At least in part. She also hopes that means that the people who seem to live aren't all dead, fizzled out of existence in some limbo dimension. But at the same time, it makes things a whole hell of a lot more complicated.]

I'd like to have the answer to this, but if I was close to anything, I don't know what it is. And I didn't find any way to leave myself a message.

[dickbats]

I know that.

[His smile is warmer now, genuine and encouraging. He passes her the journal anyway.]

But if things are going to keep getting worse for us, we need to be more open. So even if you don't learn anything new from all this, at least we'll be at the point of full disclosure.

I'm still missing a lot of my people. Haven't heard from them since before the attacks. I don't know how far this is going to reach, but it'll probably get worse before it gets better.

[outstandingbalance]

[If it gets better at all.

She takes the journal, holding it gently, careful not to tear into the journal with her claws.]

I'm not going to turn it down. I can use all of the information I can get—and we could all use all the connections we can use. Trust... doesn't exactly come naturally for me, but this isn't a situationn we're going to get out of alone.

[dickbats]

Then it's good that we've got each other.

[His hands linger against hers even after she accepts the journal.]

Natasha, I'm sure you're about to call me an idiot, but... Whatever this is. This thing with us. I want to start doing it more often.

[outstandingbalance]

No. [She says it a little uncertainly, her smile... not fake, but confused.

She's not entirely sure how to respond to this openness.

But it's not... unwelcome.]

We can talk more. Share information. It might give us some more perspective.

[dickbats]

I don't mean about the work, Nat. I mean --

[Deep breath.]

I mean I want to wake up and have someone next to me. I want to be able to turn the work off for a little while and not let it get to me all the time. I want to feel normal. And I think you can...

[He trails off. His hands squeeze hers.]

I think we should start seizing the day before the next thing happens.

[outstandingbalance]

[That takes a little processing. She wasn't expecting that change of direction—not exactly. And not with a pile of corpses in the next room. Though maybe that's not inappropriate for her, huh.

She changes the subject at that, or seems to.]

I—I said I'd tell you about when I went to school, didn't I?