Blackbirds

PART 20

"Why didn't she send Mia with Lian?" asked Green Archer quietly.

"For that matter, why send them away at all?" Black Canary put her hand on Nightwing's shoulder as he faced away from her. "She could've just taken Sloder down." Nightwing, working from Black Canary's cue, pivoted, easily grabbing her wrist and twisting hrm brm behind her back. "Piece of cake."

"She panicked?" suggested Robin.

"No--" Nightwing quickly dismissed the idea "--she didn't."

Robin persisted. "C'mon, I mean, heat of the moment--sees Lian and Mia in danger--she's been distracted by all the Amazon stuff." He shrugged. "It's totally possible she messed up."

Nightwing eyed his successor icily, "I trained Troia the same way Batman trained me."

"No one's perfect."

Nightwing glanced sharply at Ollie. "What?"

Ollie held Nightwing's gaze for a moment before directing his attention pointedly to Batman.
"I said--no one's perfect."

"Perfection is relative to the demands of a given situation."

Green Archer looked thoughtfully at Batman, intrigued by his philosophy. "So where the demands of a situation are met, perfection is perceived to exist."

Batman gave a curt nod of acknowledgement.

"Connor?"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Not helping."

Nightwing squared off towards Batman and Ollie. "You're blaming Donna?"

"We're just talking things through, Nightwing." interjected Black Canary tactfully.

"Including the possibility that an intimate relationship led to aberrant judgment."

Nightwing swallowed hard. He couldn't stop himself from a quick sideways glance at Ollie. Batman was referring to Mia and Donna--wasn't he?

Unfortunately, Ollie didn't share Nightwing's knack for quiet speculation. Although, Nightwing reflected later, Ollie's gesture was incredibly subtle considering what he might have done just to irritate Bn. n. Instead, the hand that suddenly held his was comforting. Emerald eyes mirrored his own exhaustion. Truth was, Ollie often saveghtwghtwing from pushing himself to the point of collapse.

Ollie squeezed his hand. "Go home. Get some shuteye. I'll feed the kids then we can figure out what happened here."

Black Canary shook her head. Typical Ollie. Green Archer looked from his dad to Nightwing and back again, not sure if the situation was really what it appeared to be.

Robin's jaw dropped. "Whoa..." His eyes darted to Batman who remained placidly non-reactive.
"...whoa..."

Nightwing turned apologetically to Batman. "I--"

"I'm aware of the situation."

Nightwing's jaw tightened at that confession. "Since when?"

"We'll discuss this later, Nightwing." He turned slowly surveying the burned shell. "Troia should have moved the fight to protect civilians." His voice carried to everyone. His eyes fastened on Ollie. "Agreed?"


Nightwing's doubts resurfaced when Ollie looked away. "Ollie--?"

Ollie sighed. They had both been to the Save Our Children meeting. They had both watched the films. The spectacular, horrifying destrucion that resulted from metahuman disregard for mere mortals. Here the fire ravaged remains of the Star City Youth Center were Ollie's own in his face evidence of the danger even well-meaning metahumans present


"Yeah, she should've handled it better." he admitted reluctantly.

Nightwing felt the last of his energy drain away. His hand dropped from Ollie's. "I'm going home."

"About time."

"If you need me--" Nightwing couldn't meet Ollie's gaze "--I'll be in Bludhaven."