Jaime reached out to a little framed picture on the counter near him and tossed it to Dick. It was a picture of a family barbecue in the Reyes' back yard, chock full of people, some of them smiling at the camera, some of them clearly having a good time in the background. Jaime and his parents and sister were there. So were Paco and Brenda.
The Titans were there, too, in plainclothes. Starfire, Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, Superboy, Kid Flash. Even Tim Drake was there in his civvies, massive sunglasses obscuring his eyes. Peacemaker was helping Jaime's father at the grill. Guy Gardner was there in Hawaiian shirt with a beer. (Damper had used his powers so no one noticed Jaime Reyes had a bunch of superheroes in the back yard.)
And there were a group of people tattooed and in wife beaters and do rags, that looked like they'd led a very different kind of life than Jaime had, who nevertheless, were clearly welcomed by Jaime's family. Alina, the little girl with Paco, was much younger in the picture, held in the lap of a particularly beautiful young woman with bleached blonde hair - her mother, Bonita. There was also a woman, impeccably dressed, that was talking to Brenda.
"That woman in the suit was Amparo, Brenda's aunt. A crimelord - a former crimelord - named La Dama. When Brenda's mother got sick, she found out she might have to take care of her niece someday, and she started to go clean, and after I got involved with her, she pretty much went all the way legit. Even helped me with my fight against the Reach, protected my family. I watched her pretty carefully. She still did a few illegal things here and there but mostly to keep the cartels out of El Paso in a way I never could. Used her resources and her people to make them very...unwelcome."
In ways that Jaime never could've done, but were nevertheless in the only language people like them understood.
"She took to trading in magical antiquities - which meant she had access to things that could hurt Superman. When Superman started to take over, that was how she decided to help. Due to her ties to the criminal underworld, she could get her hands on things that no hero could've gotten. I helped hook her up with some heroes - Batman, Jason Blood, Zatanna. She'd give them artifacts to look into, see if they could weaponize, leads to where certain magical things might be hidden. She said that was her way of helping out - and her way of finding redemption. Maybe she'd done wrong for a long time but she could use what she'd done with that life to help stop him, to make the world better."
She'd cared more about being a positive influence on the world than Superman, in the end.
"She was a person. Maybe she deserved jail - it was something I struggled with all the time, deciding whether or not to take her in or leave her free to protect more people by making sure there was no power vacuum for the cartels to take her place. Either way, though, she was a person and if she was ever going to die, she deserved a trial first."
That made it clear already where this was going.
"One of her men got caught by Superman's people running something for her and sold her out. He was well paid and loyal, someone that'd done time for working for her in the past without rolling on her. We're pretty sure he was tortured and killed by Superman's people. We never saw him again and he never had a trial, never went to jail after. I was never able to track him by DNA when she asked. So, after finding out what she was doing, passing magical things to his enemies, one day, Superman and his people came for her."
He nodded again at the picture.
"Those other people in the picture, the Posse, they were a street gang. No drug running or anything, mostly protection, border crossing, that kind of thing. They weren't so bad. They helped protect my family too and defended El Paso against the Reach. When La Dama was attacked, they defended her. She'd offered protection to some magical people that didn't want to be messed with by the outside world, helped some of their friends when they'd gotten into trouble, and they wanted to return the favor."
Jaime's gaze went down to the counter, to his hands, as if he was imagining something.
The blood on them, he was imagining Piñata's blood on his hands while he'd try to put pressure on the wounds killing her.
"They were people, but all Superman saw were gang members and crimelords. Bad people. Nowadays, he doesn't care what he and his people do to 'Bad people.' Hell, he kills good people. He kills his own friends. What would the lives of some gangbangers and a crime lord matter to him? So when they wouldn't back down, it turned into a blood bath. I tried to stop it, tried to make it de-escalate but they just started - they just started cutting through them. My friends. The League just -"
He cut off. His mother was watching him with concern and sadness in her eyes, like she wished she could go back in time and rip the pain out of his life with her bare hands, and put a hand on his shoulder. Where Paco and Brenda sat on the couch, Brenda sat with her hands clenched on the cushions, and Paco wrapped an arm around her. Jaime's father sat next to Nightwing, hands clenched tightly on his cane. Alina was the only one oblivious to the situation, happily playing with her Barbies on the couch as Jaime talked about the death of her parents.
"So I had to fight Superman. I had to fight the League. My girlfriend Traci - Traci 13 - she's got magic powers. She teleported in to help me, but we didn't stand a chance."
He shook his head, expression furious.
"Do you know how many times I helped Batman? He helped me against the Reach but I helped him too. Tracking alien weapons smuggling operations, helping him with some alien conspiracies, things like that. I even saved his life once. He was always - everyone goes on about how cold he is but I thought he was a good person, under all that. He sort of acted mentor-ey, you know? And I was on my own with this. I never got to meet Ted Kord, so it was people like him, and Peacemaker, and Guy Gardner, the Titans sometimes helping me out, that made it so I learned how to do this superhero thing right."
He drew in a deep breath.
"So when I called him for help, to get them all out of there, I thought he would come, like all the times I came when he called me. I mean, they could've even been useful in the fight against Superman. Low-level magic users, but still magic users, and La Dama had all those connections to the magical underworld."
He was shaking slightly now.
"He said Zatanna was out, hunting down some magical people, that he couldn't get her on the comms, that he had no one that could do a quick teleport. He said he couldn't afford the risk to his people, not for a group of criminals." He practically vibrated with anger. "All those times I risked my neck for him and the one time I'm desperate, that I beg for help to protect my people, he just said no."
The anger faded slightly. Only slightly.
"And part of me gets it. After what happened to Green Arrow, Black Canary...his people. But these were my people, my allies, my friends."
A pause. "My girlfriend."
He finally looked up Dick and Danny.
"Sinestro threw us at each other and I couldn't retract my arm blades in time. She'd already lost an arm to Superman's heatvision. And Superman...hurt me. We were laying there on the ground together, looking into each other's eyes as we were dying. She kept saying it wasn't my fault, over and over. The others were all dead by then anyway, so I got us away, through the Bleed, to one of the DEO facilities that'd helped me out before. They didn't like Superman, felt like he was a threat to the world, so they patched us up. Luckily, we survived. Barely. I coded three times on the operating table and the Scarab had to revive me."
He shook his head.
"I wasn't going to let it stop me, in the beginning. I wanted to make Superman face justice. With Superman being like that, with Batman turning his back on people that needed help, I thought to myself 'I'm going to be different.' Because the world needs heroes that aren't like that. I told myself I'd never throw people's lives away like Superman, and that I'd never turn my back on people who needed me like Batman."
He pointed to the front door.
"But then he showed up at my front door. Superman. Somehow he found me. He told me that he could let it go, what I'd done - what I'd done, like I was the one that did something wrong - that he could tell I'd just made a mistake, protecting the wrong people out of loyalty, and how it really was best that I consider not superheroing anymore since I clearly had trouble making the right choices."
He swallowed thickly and his voice went thick with rage.
"And he said I had a beautiful family and how I had to be careful that nothing happened to them. Then my sister threw a mug at his head and my dad got in his face - my dad got in Superman's face - and told him to get the hell out of his house. It was my mom that chased him off, though. Superman's secret ID is public and has been a while - she threatened to find his parents' phone number and talk to his mother about what he was doing. That got him out the house real quick."
He looked each of them with love and fondness - and misery - and then back to Dick and Danny.
"And that's when I knew I had to retire, because I couldn't risk it. I couldn't risk him hurting them." His voice cracked. "He came to my house, to my home, and threatened my family. He killed my friends. He nearly killed me and my girlfriend. And while I was getting sliced to ribbons by his monsters like Sinestro -" He gestured to the scare on his face "- and my friends were dying around me, while my girlfriend was dying in my arms, while I was trying to do what we are supposed to do as superheroes, Batman was busy being the general of his little war instead of protecting people."
Jaime turned away, as if to stand up, but instead of standing up, he disappeared behind the counter, as if lowering himself down onto something. His mother moved to help him but stopped herself when it was clear he'd managed it on his own. There was the subtle sound of metal and plastic moving slightly - and then a sound Dick probably recognized due to his time with Barbara Gordon: The click of a wheel lock on a wheelchair being released.
Then there was the sound of wheelchair wheels rolling across the floor. Jaime wheeled around the corner of the kitchen island in his wheelchair. His legs were gone, amputated just above the knee.
"And then they both had the nerve - the nerve - to show up at my home after." Jaime pointed to his face and stared them down. "After all of that, after one of them tore apart my entire world and heatvisioned my legs off, and after the other turned his back on me and on people who needed help, you want my help. After Superman threatened my family, you want my help. So. Just like I said." He laid down his challenge again. "Look at me in the eye and tell me that I should help you."
no subject
The Titans were there, too, in plainclothes. Starfire, Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, Superboy, Kid Flash. Even Tim Drake was there in his civvies, massive sunglasses obscuring his eyes. Peacemaker was helping Jaime's father at the grill. Guy Gardner was there in Hawaiian shirt with a beer. (Damper had used his powers so no one noticed Jaime Reyes had a bunch of superheroes in the back yard.)
And there were a group of people tattooed and in wife beaters and do rags, that looked like they'd led a very different kind of life than Jaime had, who nevertheless, were clearly welcomed by Jaime's family. Alina, the little girl with Paco, was much younger in the picture, held in the lap of a particularly beautiful young woman with bleached blonde hair - her mother, Bonita. There was also a woman, impeccably dressed, that was talking to Brenda.
"That woman in the suit was Amparo, Brenda's aunt. A crimelord - a former crimelord - named La Dama. When Brenda's mother got sick, she found out she might have to take care of her niece someday, and she started to go clean, and after I got involved with her, she pretty much went all the way legit. Even helped me with my fight against the Reach, protected my family. I watched her pretty carefully. She still did a few illegal things here and there but mostly to keep the cartels out of El Paso in a way I never could. Used her resources and her people to make them very...unwelcome."
In ways that Jaime never could've done, but were nevertheless in the only language people like them understood.
"She took to trading in magical antiquities - which meant she had access to things that could hurt Superman. When Superman started to take over, that was how she decided to help. Due to her ties to the criminal underworld, she could get her hands on things that no hero could've gotten. I helped hook her up with some heroes - Batman, Jason Blood, Zatanna. She'd give them artifacts to look into, see if they could weaponize, leads to where certain magical things might be hidden. She said that was her way of helping out - and her way of finding redemption. Maybe she'd done wrong for a long time but she could use what she'd done with that life to help stop him, to make the world better."
She'd cared more about being a positive influence on the world than Superman, in the end.
"She was a person. Maybe she deserved jail - it was something I struggled with all the time, deciding whether or not to take her in or leave her free to protect more people by making sure there was no power vacuum for the cartels to take her place. Either way, though, she was a person and if she was ever going to die, she deserved a trial first."
That made it clear already where this was going.
"One of her men got caught by Superman's people running something for her and sold her out. He was well paid and loyal, someone that'd done time for working for her in the past without rolling on her. We're pretty sure he was tortured and killed by Superman's people. We never saw him again and he never had a trial, never went to jail after. I was never able to track him by DNA when she asked. So, after finding out what she was doing, passing magical things to his enemies, one day, Superman and his people came for her."
He nodded again at the picture.
"Those other people in the picture, the Posse, they were a street gang. No drug running or anything, mostly protection, border crossing, that kind of thing. They weren't so bad. They helped protect my family too and defended El Paso against the Reach. When La Dama was attacked, they defended her. She'd offered protection to some magical people that didn't want to be messed with by the outside world, helped some of their friends when they'd gotten into trouble, and they wanted to return the favor."
Jaime's gaze went down to the counter, to his hands, as if he was imagining something.
The blood on them, he was imagining Piñata's blood on his hands while he'd try to put pressure on the wounds killing her.
"They were people, but all Superman saw were gang members and crimelords. Bad people. Nowadays, he doesn't care what he and his people do to 'Bad people.' Hell, he kills good people. He kills his own friends. What would the lives of some gangbangers and a crime lord matter to him? So when they wouldn't back down, it turned into a blood bath. I tried to stop it, tried to make it de-escalate but they just started - they just started cutting through them. My friends. The League just -"
He cut off. His mother was watching him with concern and sadness in her eyes, like she wished she could go back in time and rip the pain out of his life with her bare hands, and put a hand on his shoulder. Where Paco and Brenda sat on the couch, Brenda sat with her hands clenched on the cushions, and Paco wrapped an arm around her. Jaime's father sat next to Nightwing, hands clenched tightly on his cane. Alina was the only one oblivious to the situation, happily playing with her Barbies on the couch as Jaime talked about the death of her parents.
"So I had to fight Superman. I had to fight the League. My girlfriend Traci - Traci 13 - she's got magic powers. She teleported in to help me, but we didn't stand a chance."
He shook his head, expression furious.
"Do you know how many times I helped Batman? He helped me against the Reach but I helped him too. Tracking alien weapons smuggling operations, helping him with some alien conspiracies, things like that. I even saved his life once. He was always - everyone goes on about how cold he is but I thought he was a good person, under all that. He sort of acted mentor-ey, you know? And I was on my own with this. I never got to meet Ted Kord, so it was people like him, and Peacemaker, and Guy Gardner, the Titans sometimes helping me out, that made it so I learned how to do this superhero thing right."
He drew in a deep breath.
"So when I called him for help, to get them all out of there, I thought he would come, like all the times I came when he called me. I mean, they could've even been useful in the fight against Superman. Low-level magic users, but still magic users, and La Dama had all those connections to the magical underworld."
He was shaking slightly now.
"He said Zatanna was out, hunting down some magical people, that he couldn't get her on the comms, that he had no one that could do a quick teleport. He said he couldn't afford the risk to his people, not for a group of criminals." He practically vibrated with anger. "All those times I risked my neck for him and the one time I'm desperate, that I beg for help to protect my people, he just said no."
The anger faded slightly. Only slightly.
"And part of me gets it. After what happened to Green Arrow, Black Canary...his people. But these were my people, my allies, my friends."
A pause. "My girlfriend."
He finally looked up Dick and Danny.
"Sinestro threw us at each other and I couldn't retract my arm blades in time. She'd already lost an arm to Superman's heatvision. And Superman...hurt me. We were laying there on the ground together, looking into each other's eyes as we were dying. She kept saying it wasn't my fault, over and over. The others were all dead by then anyway, so I got us away, through the Bleed, to one of the DEO facilities that'd helped me out before. They didn't like Superman, felt like he was a threat to the world, so they patched us up. Luckily, we survived. Barely. I coded three times on the operating table and the Scarab had to revive me."
He shook his head.
"I wasn't going to let it stop me, in the beginning. I wanted to make Superman face justice. With Superman being like that, with Batman turning his back on people that needed help, I thought to myself 'I'm going to be different.' Because the world needs heroes that aren't like that. I told myself I'd never throw people's lives away like Superman, and that I'd never turn my back on people who needed me like Batman."
He pointed to the front door.
"But then he showed up at my front door. Superman. Somehow he found me. He told me that he could let it go, what I'd done - what I'd done, like I was the one that did something wrong - that he could tell I'd just made a mistake, protecting the wrong people out of loyalty, and how it really was best that I consider not superheroing anymore since I clearly had trouble making the right choices."
He swallowed thickly and his voice went thick with rage.
"And he said I had a beautiful family and how I had to be careful that nothing happened to them. Then my sister threw a mug at his head and my dad got in his face - my dad got in Superman's face - and told him to get the hell out of his house. It was my mom that chased him off, though. Superman's secret ID is public and has been a while - she threatened to find his parents' phone number and talk to his mother about what he was doing. That got him out the house real quick."
He looked each of them with love and fondness - and misery - and then back to Dick and Danny.
"And that's when I knew I had to retire, because I couldn't risk it. I couldn't risk him hurting them." His voice cracked. "He came to my house, to my home, and threatened my family. He killed my friends. He nearly killed me and my girlfriend. And while I was getting sliced to ribbons by his monsters like Sinestro -" He gestured to the scare on his face "- and my friends were dying around me, while my girlfriend was dying in my arms, while I was trying to do what we are supposed to do as superheroes, Batman was busy being the general of his little war instead of protecting people."
Jaime turned away, as if to stand up, but instead of standing up, he disappeared behind the counter, as if lowering himself down onto something. His mother moved to help him but stopped herself when it was clear he'd managed it on his own. There was the subtle sound of metal and plastic moving slightly - and then a sound Dick probably recognized due to his time with Barbara Gordon: The click of a wheel lock on a wheelchair being released.
Then there was the sound of wheelchair wheels rolling across the floor. Jaime wheeled around the corner of the kitchen island in his wheelchair. His legs were gone, amputated just above the knee.
"And then they both had the nerve - the nerve - to show up at my home after." Jaime pointed to his face and stared them down. "After all of that, after one of them tore apart my entire world and heatvisioned my legs off, and after the other turned his back on me and on people who needed help, you want my help. After Superman threatened my family, you want my help. So. Just like I said." He laid down his challenge again. "Look at me in the eye and tell me that I should help you."