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tigriswolfTitle: burn the long-lived phoenix
Fandom: Batman
Disclaimer: not my charactrers; title from Shakespeare
Warnings: AUish
Pairings: none stated
Rating: PG
Wordcount:305
Point of view: third
Prompt: DCU, Phoenix (the mythological bird), Jason Todd was resurrected but he needs to burn before he can truly be reborn
He dreams in shades of red and gold and orange and purple, in heat and flames and light so white-hot bright he wakes shielding his eyes from the glow. There is song in the dreams, a slight tune that grows and grows and burns in his mind until he hears it everywhere he goes, awake or asleep, and it's driving him insane.
Well, more insane.
It gets to the point where he can't focus and can't sleep, until that goddamned song is all he can think about it, and then he meets the Joker again, just randomly on the street.
Jason's not even dressed like the Red Hood. He looks like any idiot in public, the perfect target for the Joker. He can't even defend himself, he's so worn-out, exhausted from not sleeping for going on two weeks.
And the Joker kills him. Again. The fucker.
But Jason can still hear that goddamned music, and he follows it back to his body lying on the sidewalk, and finally finally the music quiets until he can think.
The world is tinted red and gold and orange and purple, but the heat recedes. He can still feel it, burning under his skin, but it's soothing, now. Feels like home. He's never been so comfortable.
People are screaming and the Joker is cackling, and Jason can remember a hundred thousand things he's never done, places he's never been, names he's never used. Lives he never lived.
And the music hums, trills a question. There's an invader standing on his street, in his city. An invader who killed him twice.
Jason rises to his feet and the Joker actually shuts up to stare at him. And when Jason smiles, the Joker falls back a step.
And when Jason erupts in fire, laughing, it's the Joker's turn to scream.
Title: still a bullet in your daddy's gun
Fandom: Batman
Disclaimer: not my character; title from Miranda Lambert
Warnings: AUish?
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 240
Point of view: third
Prompt: Jason Todd, It gets frustrating, being the only one actually doing the job.
What Bruce and all his good little minions don't seem to realize is that arresting the bad guys only makes them better criminals. Caging them only gives them time to learn and evolve and perfect their craft.
Arkham is worse than useless because they learn from each other and get three square meals a day and shelter from the elements. And they may respect Batman, but they sure don't fear him anymore because everyone knows there is a line he won't cross.
Joker killed Robin, and even then Batman let him live. Broken bones heal and the Joker bounced back, straight into Batman's waiting arms.
And everyone Batman's trained is the same. Won't take a life. They believe it means they won't be any better than the monsters they get off the street for a night.
But Red Hood, he learned his lesson on the floor at Joker's feet, beneath his fists and crowbar, in the heat of an explosion. He knows what has to be done, and he does it.
And everyone knows there is no line Red Hood won't cross to clean up the streets.
And everyone sees that Batman doesn't condone it, doesn't like it-but he doesn't stop it, either.
And in Jason's dreams, the Joker begs him for mercy. He has as little mercy asleep as he does awake, and criminals try to hide from him, but the Red Hood's gun finds them all.
Title: dreams in a new year
Fandom: White Collar
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: pre-series
Pairings: Neal/Kate
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 125
Point of view: third
Prompt: Neal/Kate, happiness.
They're sitting on the hood of a legally-rented car, neither too boring nor too flashy, sharing a to-go mug of hot chocolate and watching the sun set across the Grand Canyon. In just a handful of hours it will be a new year and they've pulled off their most successful scam yet.
Neal knows that they can do this forever, him and Kate. They can do anything, everything, take the world and make it theirs, every dream a scared kid barely dared hope.
Him and Kate, together forever, nothing out of reach or too far.
She rests her head on his shoulder and says, "I want to paint a sunrise onto you."
He kisses the top of her head and replies, "Sounds good to me."
Title: falling
Fandom: Dogma
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 130
Point of view: third
Prompt: Loki, fear.
He might've been the drunkest being in creation, but he stood before God's Throne and threw down his flaming sword and declined to work for God anymore, and he did not fear.
God cast him out, into the wilds of humanity, and told him to never come home, but he did not fear.
He existed, taking his small pleasures in tormenting humanity, for centuries, away from home and God and everyone but Bartleby, and he did not fear.
But this, what Bartleby is saying, sounding like the MorningStar, the only other angel besides Bartleby that Loki has ever loved, the one he didn't follow, choosing God and Bartleby-now, this moment, Loki fears.
He will have to choose again, what is right over his brother, and he is sorely afraid.
Title: never either found another
Fandom: Angel the Series/Leverage
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Coleridge
Warnings: AUish?
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 220
Point of view: third
Prompt: Leverage, Eliot/(+)Hardison, "Who the hell is Lindsey McDonald?"
Eliot's been unconscious in the hospital for three days. Parker's begun taking things from galleries and museums only to put them in another, Nate's been drunk for twenty-four hours now, and Sophie has convinced a dozen different men that she's a princess from a country that ceased to exist over two hundred years ago.
And Alec has sat in Eliot's room, accessing the internet from his phone, and making sure that their cover stories hold. He's taken charge because Nate's practically shut down and Sophie is panicking and no one in their right mind would give Parker any power over life and death, and if anything goes wrong, Eliot will die. He barely survived the job going south. Alec needs to keep watch over not only his team, but the bad guys, too.
So far, Vikerson hasn't caught Eliot's scent. Neither he nor his goons saw Eliot after the fight, so with any luck, they think he's gone to ground somewhere. Not lying helpless in a hospital bed.
So Alec is alone in the room with a comatose Eliot when the guy with Eliot's face storms in, wearing Eliot's pissed-off and about to share the rage expression.
Alec stares at him, mouth and eyes wide, and the guy snarls, "What the fuck did your team do to my brother?"