paramorerocker18

[paramorerocker18]

An Ace from Beyond the Grave - Part 3

Dove had become a vigilante by force, using stealth and cunning to try and help those in the worst area of Gotham.

Or Reader doesn't know that Jason is the Red Hood. Red Hood doesn't realise that Reader is his first love from before his death. Jason doesn't know the extent of damage that his death caused.

CW: swearing, angst, reference to past abuse

Part 1

Part 2

Jason

Melanie was safe and so were the other kids. Between himself and Dove they had managed to get the kids to the nearest GCPD station. He had Lucia, a small girl of South Asian decent sat on his shoulders with Thomas carried on his left hip and Melanie attached to his right hand.

He cast a look at Dove who had tied a bandana she had stolen from one of the hench men tied around the wound on her calf and Sienna cradled in her arms. The woman was whispering words of comfort to the small girl who was clinging to her. Sienna was in a state of complete shell shock not being able to say anything other than the small admission of her name after some gentle coaxing from the female vigilante.

It was a slow trip to get to the station, Jason was starting to struggle towards the end of the journey but Dove's face had drained of all colour and she was almost dragging her wounded leg rather than walking but she did not stop.

Jason found it hard not to focus on the female vigilante that he had ended up fighting alongside. Even in what had to be serious pain, she did not stop once. At no point did she ever put Sienna down or show how injuried she was.

He had heard rumbling of a vigilante in his territory that targeted traffickers and pedophile rings bringing them down through stealth operations but the Red Hood had more pressing matters to deal with then paying attention to some small time do-gooder that wasn't threatening his business.

The two vigilantes did not speak to each other the entire journey and Jason was caught off guard when Dove did speak again.

"I am guessing you and the police don't have a great working relationship so this may be the best time for you to leave unless you feel like handing yourself over tonight," she remarked in an icy tone or at least as cold as she could pull off with the pain that was evident in her voice.

She was right of course, Jason couldn't afford to stick around. Carefully crouching down so that Thomas and Lucia could get off him. He said goodbye to the kids and then made his way to the adjacent roof top watching as Dove handed over the four kids to her police contact.

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Dove

She had called Sargent Blackstone as Red Hood said goodbye to the kids.

"Jessica, it's Dove. I need your help."

"Dove, you know I'm not your personal inside man at GCPD right? You can't be calling in favours. I don't have time, I've got a trafficking ring to find and missing children to recover. I don't have time to risk my job for your whims."

"Thanks Blackstone, ever a pleasure. I have the kids you're looking for. I'm outside if you have time to help with this current whim." On that last note she cut the call.

After giving all the details and detaching Sienna from her neck Dove managed to slip away as phone calls to the children's guardians were being made. Better to cut and run as soon as she could, she knew better than to let herself become too entrenched into a case once she had involved the GCPD. Although she had tried to avoid it the Red Hood had killed the traffickers and scum of the earth were still victims in the eyes of the law.

Red Hood had disappeared sharpish at the GCPD which she was thankful for. He may have saved her but the resentment she haboured deep for the masked vigilante had not quelled by any means.

Dove didn't have a holier than thou outlook on killing, if she needed to she wouldn't hesitate. To cull the tree of the rot you have to burn the infection, she would put a bullet between the eyes of those who wouldn't reform and not lose sleep over it. What she had learnt was that people can reform and grow and some deserved that chance.

There was also the issue of staying below Batman's radar as butchered as their relationship is, she didn't care to invoke his own morals on her business. Better to only kill when necessary than have the Bat notice.

Keeping her nose clean kept him out of her life and her resentment and anger in check. It helped that Bruce wanted to ignore her existence, she only reminded of his two biggest failures.

The fact she was here in the vast hole that Jason Todd's death had ripped into their universe. The repercussions of the damage his death left behind an ugly tapestry across her skin.

She was a reminder, left behind like an infection in the wound of Jason's loss.

In the same breath Bruce was the embodiment of the absence of Jason Todd. The dull ache that shattered her. Bruce made her homesick for a life she was no longer living. The reminder of mourning for all she had lost and what had been taken from her. Not only Jason but so much more.

The thoughts of Jason raced through her like venom in her brain as she shook them away, trying to turn her thoughts away from Bats, Bruce and beatings that belonged locked away.

She realised that she had reached the roof of Leslie's clinic with a start. Not realising she was consciously going to the roof top, irritated by the irrationality of her brain's dissociative fugue at the thought of Bruce who always brought her back to him.

Now back in reality her thoughts went back to the injury sustained to her right calf. Locating the hidden medical kit that Leslie stashed for the vigilantes of Gotham to use she got to work cleaning and gluing the gash.

Her hands worked quickly, numbly with practice over years of patching herself and others up. As she began wrapping the bandage around her leg that's when she heard the modulator cut through the quiet of the roof.

Rage hit like ice through her body. The Red Hood had followed her.

"You make it a habit to pick battles you're going to lose? Three against one? Hope you don't gamble with those odds."

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Jason

What Jason wasn't expecting was the venom in which the vigilante bit back with.

"What business is it of yours Hood," she snapped the disstain in her voice piercing and she threw his name like it was a poison caught him off guard.

They had never met before, that he was sure of. He would have remembered. The Dove was intriguing to him. She wasn't a Bat, had no clear affiliation to any other Gotham teams and operated in his territory.

Most vigilantes did not bother with the Narrows or Bowery and certainly not the Hills where crime alley ran through like a scar. Dove used guns so it was not a morality issue.

He was the Red Hood he should be commanding the conversation not the other way round.

Jason didn't answer the question, she was right after all. "I want the information from the flash drive you took from the trafficking ring." He stated, it was why he had followed her and maybe curiosity to unpick the mystery of the Dove.

Jason was irritated that she had thought to still get the information and he hadn't. He was going to raze the trafficking ring that thought it could operate within his territory.

"Yeah, well too bad." This was not how Jason had expected this meeting to go, he was supposed to have the flash drive in hand on the way back to his base deciphering which low intelligence vermin dared mess with his city's children.

"We busted them together, that information was secured together. I deserve it as much as you do," Jason snapped. He sounded pathetic, this woman was making him feel off balance. The Red Hood was never off balance, he threw others stability off. "I saved you from getting yourself killed with your poor planning you owe me."

Only then did Dove's head turn to face him. No longer focusing on bandaging her wound.

"Listen to me very fucking carefully Red Hood. I owe you nothing. I never asked for your help, that was your mistake," her mouth twisted into a hard line. She stood and stormed up to him. Rage flashed across the features that were not obscured by her mask.

"Let me make myself abundantly clear so my words get through that dense Red helmet you wear," thrusting a pointed finger into his heavily armour chest.

"You are vile, I don't work with Joker wannabes who run around playing crime lord as some pitiful villain worship. He may have cursed me with my name but you taking that death worshipping piece of garbage's moniker like some kind of badge of honour disgusts me and I would rather die than be associated with the likes of you." With each sentence Dove lobbied at him she jabbed her finger into her chest to accentuate her point. She then stormed away to the ledge of the clinics roof.

"This is your only warning. You want to be the Joker so bad, I will give you a taste of the torture he hands out. Maybe that will get your rocks off. Stay away from me and I will stay out of your way," casting one last look his way before dropping down the attached fire escape.

Jason stood there frozen in shock at the verbal lashing he had just received. At least he had managed to attach the tracking bug to her utility belt whilst she beat her words into him.

Questions raced through his mind like whiplash. What did she mean Joker had cursed her with the name Dove.

She thought he had taken the name Red Hood as an homage to the Joker and had a rage that rivalled his own towards the twisted clown of Gotham.

Why was Jason still getting cut by the shards of damage that Joker had left in his wake?

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A/N love me some angst sorry about that

[paramorerocker18]

An Ace from Beyond the Grave - Part 2

Dove had become a vigilante by force, using stealth and cunning to try and help those in the worst area of Gotham.

Or Reader doesn't know that Jason is the Red Hood. Red Hood doesn't realise that Reader is his first love from before his death. Jason doesn't know the extent of damage that his death caused.

CW: swearing, implied threat of SA, violence, trafficking ring, guns, poorly written fight scene

Part 1:

Dove

The threat echoed in her head and fear clawed into her heart as the realisation that she was outnumbered and the hope the captured children was about to be snuffed out once these men grabbed her and used her body for their gratification.

What the hell had she done. She was going to die in this warehouse and be tortured in front of the children she was meant to be saving.

There was suddenly a thud next to her and to the right of her their was a huge man clad in a red helmet with a gun in each hand. He was an absolute pillar of a man, at least 6 foot tall and he had appeared like some kind of angel of retribution from above.

Saviour was not a word she would have used to describe the Red Hood but there he stood like he had been carved from the heavens to vanquish those due retribution. Its seemed like another cruel twist of fate that she was going to be saved by Gothams newest crime lord who Dove felt nothing but hatred for.

The guards all changed the target of their guns to the new figure in the warehouse. "It's the Red Hood," the shortest of the hench men shouted and Dove could hear the fear in his voice.

The Red Hood said nothing and raised his gun to the middle trafficker and shot him in the head. "GO LEFT," the large man yelled at her.

She aimed her gun at the greasy man's kneecaps and shot three bullets whilst attempting to duck from the bullets being sent back at her. The bullet hit him causing a loud cry of curses to leave his mouth but that didn't stop her.

Running towards him, she connected her foot with a kick into his busted kneecap sending him sprawling to his back screaming in pain.

Lowering herself down stamping on his knee, "Looks like the only one being taught anything is you," she taunted him. He attempted to spit at her but the pain of the gunshot wound had clearly robbed his mouth of any moisture. "You fucking bitch, you fucking bitch!" He howled as she pushed her foot down harder.

Grabbing another syringe from her belt she injected the vile man, all of sudden she felt a searing pain in her calf. Looking down she saw the gash of where the man had tried to stab her in his drugged state but had only managed to cut her. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell fully unconscious.

Pulling away from the man, she immediately went to the children. Four terrified faces looked up at her, they all reared away from her. Understandably given all they had gone through and the fact she had a mask covering half her face and a dark hood up. Dove quickly ripped down her hood. "Hi guys, I am here to help. My name is Dove and I am going to get you out of here and get you home I promise." She held her pinky out and even though none of the kids could grab it they seemed to recognise the solemn vow that she had proposed.

"I'm going to untie you and remove the material from your mouth now is that okay?" The little boy she asked nodded his head causing his curls to bounce with the movement. She checked he was ready and removed the gag and rope binding him and then continued the process with the other three. Each time confirming with the children that they were ready for her to untie them.

Answering all the questions the best she could, she quickly managed to get all four of the kids free.

"Fucking scumbags," she heard muttered across the warehouse. In the adrenaline of the gash on her leg and freeing the children, the Red Hood falling from the rafters had slipped her mind. She whirled around whilst drawing her gun pointing it directly at the crime lords chest.

"Seriously?" Hood chuckled out lowly, clearly finding amusement in Dove redrawing her gun. Anger flicking inside her, laughter was not the response she was looking for when aiming the barrel of a weapon at someone.

Although she wasn't sure what to have expected as a response, it certainly wasn't the modulated response of what sounded like a bratty teenager. Not letting that disarm her, the gun stayed pointed directly at his chest.

"What are you doing here Hood?"

"What do you think I am doing here?" The Red Hood hit back the aggravated tone only enhanced by the modulator. The light amused tone lost to his voice.

His quick change to anger reassuring Dove. That's better she thought, a twisted thought sure but she liked the idea of irritating the huge adonis of a man in front of her. Seriously why did he looked like he was sculpted by a virtuoso of art and Hood was their magnum opus. Now Dove was waxing poetry about the target of her next bullet. Get it together!

"I am not letting you have the children they are going home, I will fight you. I won't let you take them." There was no way she would win against the Red Hood, she had heard the stories about his showdown with Batman himself and that Hood nearly won.

She didn't know much about the newest crime lord to take over the territory she tried to protect. Hood didn't sell drugs to children and was protecting some of the working girls she knew. However that did not mean much in Gotham when it came to its illustrious gallery of rogues and villians.

Especially crime lords that sported that certain moniker. Dove hated him viciously for that alone, no matter what good Hood may have done for the Narrows, Hills and Bowery, his alias was enough for her to know he was evil. Regardless of any good she had heard, she wasn't stupid enough to let a known crime lord take the children. Gotham had taught her better than that.

Dove had learnt early that no one was to be trusted. "I have backup coming." She lied.

"First of all no you don't, there are signal jammers all around the site. If you had backup you wouldn't have charged in on your own against three people." Dove's mouth felt like she had dipped her tongue in acid. He knew she didn't have backup, her lie had fallen apart instantly. "Second, I'm here for the same reason you are to get these kids back home."

Damn her own signal jammers had come back round to bite her. She eyed him warily, not yet sure to drop her guard. Could you blame her it is Gotham after all.

The two vigilantes stood staring at the other guns pointed trying to assess the other when suddenly from behind her one of the children darted out.

"Mr Hood! You came to save me!" The scene in front of her was truly bizarre. Their was a small brown haired 8 year old child wrapped around the muscular left leg of the Red Hood staring up at the helmet in adoration. "I knew you would come to save me just like when you saved me and Andi before."

"Hey Melie, of course I would come save you. I said I always would." Red Hood replied in the softest voice that Dove had ever heard. A tone so soft she wouldn't have thought capable of the red Helmeted man who towered above her and was a wall of muscles.

"Miss Dove, I promise Mr Hood is a hero. You don't have to be mad at him." Melie the small girl said smiling at her.

Reluctantly Dove flicked the safety on and put her gun back in the holster. "Well Melie, any friend of yours is a friend of mine," she shot her a smile which made Melie absolutely beam.

"Miss Dove, you're bleeding," interrupted Thomas who had introduced himself as Dove had untied him.

"Oh, I am okay don't worry Thomas. Its only a graze."

It was not in fact just a graze now that the adrenaline was fading colossal waves of pain were starting to crash over her but that would need to wait. These kids needed to get out of here first.

Scanning the room, Dove spotted the computer system that had been crudely set up in the warehouse, inputting the flash drive she had been given by Oracle she quickly copied all the data on the PC. Oracle would be able to find what she needed.

Turning back to the Red Hood and the four children. "Let's get you to the station and bring you back home."

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A/n let me know what you think !!

[paramorerocker18]

An Ace from Beyond the Grave

Dove had become a vigilante by force, using stealth and cunning to try and help those in the worst area of Gotham.

When the Red Hood takes control of the territory the rot that runs through these cursed streets spills over. The vigilante and crime lord have a past that threatens to drown them both.

Or Reader doesn't know that Jason is the Red Hood. Red Hood doesn't realise that Reader is his first love from before his death. Jason doesn't know the extent of damage that his death caused.

CW: swearing, implied threat of SA, violence, trafficking ring, guns

A/N I know there is already a DC character with the name dove but its story relevant later so we are just ignoring that okay

Chapter 1

It was a simple recon mission, get in and get out. A small stealth mission, she would get in find the information she needed to help bring down the trafficking ring and then get out unnoticed.

An easy task.

Oracle had scouted out the warehouse well, she easily identified the best way to breach the building was via the unsecured sky light. After scaling the side of the warehouse with the help of her grappling hook she dropped herself onto the metal structure beams of the warehouse.

The warehouse was partitioned into two, down below were two hench men presumably on guarding the other room.

She flipped the infrared sensors in her mask on. The next room showed 6 heat signatures.

There was not supposed to be seven heat signatures.

She cursed under her breath and navigated along the beams to cross the dividing wall that luckily did not reach the roof of the warehouse.

Looking down, her stomach felt like it had fallen to the floor.

She wasn't expecting to find was the operation warehouse being used an active base to smuggle children. There was supposed to be a few guards, an easy one and done just a small foot note of the patrol and pass the information to Oracle.

Instead here she was crouched on the cold metal support beams, looking down at the far too small bound bodies of four children and two guards.

Quickly clambering along the steel frame to the adjacent room containing the two hench men as quietly as possible. She steeled herself and paused weighing up her options.

Flicking infrared off and upping the assisted listening device Dove could hear the guards below.

They were sat across from each other on fold out chairs playing some card game.

'This gig has got to be the worst one yet, why the fuck has the boss got four of us guarding the brats, what a fucking waste,' the larger man grumbled. Throwing down a card with more force than necessary.

'Quit your bitching, this is a sweet job and anyway the cargo gets shipped out in a few hours we just gotta sit here and get paid,' the leaner man with the crooked nose snapped back.

The man using the word cargo to refer to the stolen children filled Dove with revulsion, the taste of bile biting at the back of her throat.

Her options were looking much more slim than before.

There was no chance of calling in Oracle to ask for back up, not with the signal jammers she had set up to stop the hench man from calling for reinforcements before breaking in.

Idiot now your truly on your own! Her minds voice snarled.

If she left there was chance that by the time she had secured backup the traffickers could have already moved the children to the next location.

She had no choice she had to act. Taking a deep breath in to regulate her fried nervous system; she dropped down.

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Jason crawled through the small sky light opening.

After beating the intel out of one of the many low lives that tainted this wretched city, he had finally found the warehouse. They were using it to smuggle the crime alley children to the highest bidders.

His alley, his jurisdiction and these animals thought they could steal his children. Pure venom was raging in Jason's veins. Making matters worse was they had taken Melanie.

Early into Jason's tenure of the Red Hood becoming the protector of crime alley, he had found Andi and Melanie, two street kids who's life story was not dissimilar to the others drowning in the cesspit of Gotham. Not too dissimilar to the life that he Jason had lived before.

Andi and Melanie were sisters, stuck in an abusive home where their mother spent the little money they had on drugs. Andi had been working the streets since she was 17 as well as two jobs in the day.

It had been the coldest natural (not caused by Mr Freeze natural) winter that had hit Gotham in years. The subzero temperatures had even frozen crime, the rogue gallery had gone quiet and even the petty criminals had stayed inside.

Jason was perched on a roof top surveying the still night when he heard a voice by the buildings fire escape.

"I know it's cold Melie, I'm sorry. Here wrap this around you," Jason peered down to see two girls, the eldest shrugging off her jacket and wrapping it around the younger girl.

"Andi, I want to go home please. I want to go home," the youngest girl pleaded, the shivering and tearful sound of her voice piercing the still night.

"I know duckie, we will soon. Mummy's just not very well at the moment. We will go back when she falls asleep." The elder girls voice shook with the lie as she pulled the tiny silhouette of the child into her and started stroking her hair.

Jason let out a hard breath. He was suddenly transported to being 12 years old thrown out by Willis because they were too high to deal with their own child. How many times had he told himself the same lie that his mum was just sick not too high out of her mind seeing things that weren't there to care for him.

The Red Hood would be damned to allow another child to be chewed up and spat back out by their parents neglect the way he had. In that moment he made a decision, Jason came down the fire escape and called out in the least intimidating voice he could muster.

"Hey, it's far too cold for you two in these temperatures, what are you doing out here," Jason cringed at the modulator in his helmet carrying out his voice, his attempt to sound friendly was a poor one.

The elder girl whipped around to the sound of his voice shoving the younger behind her body like a hunted animal protecting her young. The elder sister's arms were bare, she was lean and dark haired with dark brown distrusting eyes glaring at Jason.

Jason put his hands up in a surrender position as he stepped slowly towards the pair. "I am not here to hurt you, I swear."

The younger girl peeked around her sister and Jason caught site of her small rounded face, her nose red with the cold and two light brown plaits framing her face. Her sister was a darker complexion with her hair in a protective style he vaguely recognised as twists.

"Andi, that's the Red Hood he protects people I've seen him on the news," the younger girl exclaimed her wide brown eyes staring at him in amazement.

Having looked at the pair longer now, he could tell they were related but probably only half sisters. They both had the same heart shaped face and nose.

"Oh I know who he is," Andi said with distrust still evident in her voice. "The other girls say you help them, make sure to stop any men getting too rough with them. That true?" The Gotham accent rang out clear as day.

"I do what I can, anyone who breaks the rules, they deal with me," she is a working girl Jason thought, which explains why she didn't immediately book it at the sight of the helmet. Jason had made it very clear that in his territory anyone who messed with the sex workers will be dealt with. Brutally.

"Tiff said you helped her with Carson and he hasn't been seen since."

"If I did then I am sure Carson learnt his lesson," Jason didn't know who Carson was but he had hospitalised those who didn't heed his warnings or worse. "Listen," Jason scratched the back of his neck with anxiety, "I heard your Mum is sick, you really shouldn't be out in this cold. I know somewhere you can stay for a while... until she gets better."

After their first meeting, Jason had lead them to a nearby apartment he had rented as a safe house nearby. Andi had put Melanie to bed and had told him about their mums drug habit and her tendency to forget who her daughters were and freak out at them whilst high. Andi was working 2 jobs and working the streets at night to keep them afloat. Jason transferred the apartment over to Andi the next morning and had set up the payments to the landlord directly from him each month.

So when Andi came to Red Hood six months later in hysterics that Melanie had been taken whilst her girlfriend Lucy had been beaten half to death by a trafficking ring. Jason knew he had to find her.

As Jason positioned himself on the metal structure of support beams what he wasn't expecting was to see a dark figure clad in a black vigilante costume in one hand holding a rag to the mouth of a struggling man with the other arm wrapped around his neck in a headlock.

He watched as the man went unconscious and the vigilante dropped their hold on the guard, who very unceremoniously slumped to the ground.

The other guard flew upwards from his chair and shouted something, presumably for the guards next door.

The guard clearly breaking through the shocked stupor of what had just happened raised his hands in a fighting stance, but his reactions were too slow the masked figure had already launched towards him and expertly used their weight to tackle him to the ground. They tussled back and forth until the masked vigilante grabbed something and dug it into his neck. The man managed to throw the vigilante off and staggered to his feet.

The guard reached up to his neck and removed whatever had been stabbed into his neck and tossed it aside. Jason's eyes followed to where it fell and saw the needle tipped syringe with the plunger fully pushed down.

"You fucking bitch," the nearly 6 foot man spat at the vigilante, "I will make you pay for that you stupid"

The beginning of whatever explicit that he was going to hurl out was cut short by a swift punch to the face.

Jason couldn't help but be impressed as the guard staggered backward, the drugs he had been injected with clearly having taken effect.

The vigilante pivoted away quick on their feet, almost gracefully towards the door as Jason followed along the steel beams.

"It's the Dove," he heard one of the men call as she broke through the door. The Dove, great another bird for the bats Jason thought bitterly.

The three men had their weapons drawn pointing at who Jason presumed was the Dove. He hadn't noticed that she had also entered the room armed with a gun in hand. The thought struck him that she had a gun, Jason didn't know all the vigilantes that protected Gotham but she couldn't be a Bat if she used guns. Get a grip Hood, what did that matter right now he thought.

Jason saw looked down past the standoff and saw the children who were bound and gagged, he could hear the small sobbing muffled by the rags stuffed in their mouths. He saw Melanie in her signature plaits with a purple welt on her tear stained face gazing at the intruder.

Anger filled Jason at the site of the bruising to her face and the rage that the Lazuraus Pit had imbued within him rolled through his body in hot waves. It took everything in him not to jump down then and start unloading bullets into the pathetic filth that had stolen vulnerable children.

He pulled his gun from his right holster and began tying a rope to the cross section of the beam he was on as the voices of the vigilante apparently named Dove and the guards carried up to him.

"Drop your weapons and leave the kids and you get to live," Dove barked at them.

The tall greasy guard let out a mirthless laugh, "I don't think so birdie, it's three to one. It's nice of you to drop by, we aren't allowed to touch the merchandise," his predatory eyes flicking to the children, "but now you are here we can show them what they have to look forward to once they are bought. It will be a teaching moment" The henchmen all twitter with excitement at the leaders threats as Dove grips the barrel of her weapon harder.

That was all Jason needed to hear and he swung off the beam down the rope.

Part 2

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Let me know what you think, it's my first fic go easy on me