514A. I'm not Bruce Wayne.

514A checked the text as it came through, reading it quickly, before switching his phone off. Another message from Howard: among the last people 514A wanted to even think about at that moment in time.

He tucked his belongings in his bag, eyes on his target, and took a deep breath. The clone’s blank expression flicked into one of fear and caution, and he shouldered his bag up to scuffle into the throes of people. Picking up his pace and deepening his breaths to mimic that he had been running, 514A reached out at the last moment to grab the wrist of an older man as he pushed his front door open.

Immediately the other tried to brush him off.

“Please!” 514A gasped, peering wide eyed up at the man. “Dr. Read, please”

514A waited, shaking and wary of what the man’s reaction would be, flicking his head slightly to whip his hair aside. When his face was revealed, Dr. Read’s face flickered with recognition and 514A could hear the man’s heart beat steady. He let go.

“Subject 514A?”

“I call myself Calvin now” 514A twitched a smile, which Dr. Read returned, looking mystified. “Calvin Rose”

“You, you call yourself Calvin?” Dr. Read repeated, his smile widening when 514A nodded earnestly. He darted a glance around at the public, drifting by without giving them a second glance, and beckoned 514A in. 

       “—–there. You see that slight twitch, the wrinkle in the forehead, surprised about his own words. He’s lying and doesn’t even realize it,” he stated aloud, mostly to himself or perhaps the person next to him. It was a public space after all, he decided to end his discussion early simply to— people watch. 

514A could see it too. Micro expressions. But what stumped him was how someone could believe such a strong lie. His eyes trailed to his target, in the background lined up behind the speaker, and counted her breaths as she took them, splitting his analysis from the speaker to her and back again.

Looking up from the novel in her hands she glanced at the person to her left and noticed something, ‘Excuse me. You have a piece of fuzz on your shoulder.’ Rachel returned to gazing at her book.

Fuzz. A frizzy mass of hair or fibre.

514A looked to where the stranger said and plucked it off between his fingers, studying it before letting it go in the breeze. He cast her a brief look.

‘ i’m trying to have a GOOD DAY and be a GOOD PERSON but you ruined that! ‘ duela yelled at the unconscious body. ‘ i’m trying to be what other people think i won’t be! and it can’t happen with people being sketchy and FOLLOWING me around! ‘

 He tried to see where she was looking, but couldn’t see anything there. The clone quirked his head at her. Whatever the problem was she was clearly distressed, and 514A didn’t care, it was her words not her mood that brought his attention.

“What is your definition of a good person?”

Dog: woof

514A: woof?

Dog: woof!

There was something different about 5 that she couldn’t quite figure out but between the lack of sleep and her lack of nutrients, she wasn’t as quick to make observations. Everything around her had slowed down while her heart rate seemed to have picked up–an unusual combination and terrifying too. She wasn’t sure what was going through 5′s mind but she did look on with great interest and tried holding on as much as possible. 

When 5 mentioned Eliza,she remained quiet,expression softened. She knew by now how much the girl had meant to 5. She listened to the possibly ways she could die,unfazed by most of the ideas simply because they had replayed in her mind before. She had prepared herself to die in front of the Joker before and when she arriving during the invasion, Jubilee knew there was a possibility she wouldn’t come out of it. But there was a reason why 5 was saying these things and the more she thought about it, the less she made a connection. She blamed it on how ill she felt. “That’s true.” She whispered, trying to keep up with the young boy. 

“Again, all true…”Her words drifted, the back of her eyes aching for her to lie down somewhere and close them for a while. As he spoke about her dying in the hands of a friend, she hung on longer, taking a deep breath and struggling to determine why this was being said. Those last two are synonymous. The sentence played in her mind several time as Jubilee gathered her thoughts. 

It wasn’t until it clicked that she noticed the different knives now on the table and she looked up to take a glimpse of the  vial in his hands.

She froze.  

Jubilee held her breath, gaze bouncing from the vial to 5 to the vial again and back to 5 again. Why this was happening she couldn’t be so sure but she refused to believe 5 had poisoned her. Couldn’t be. She’d feel it by now. He said it was a painful way to die after all and the only pain she felt was heartbreak. “I am most definitely not immune, 5.” She replied in a tense tone, hands gripping the side of her chair. She didn’t want to place blame. She couldn’t. Why would she do that to him? Then again, he was right about others being able to hurt her. “5…” She whispered. “What’s going on?”

With a faked sigh, 514A put the vial down and popped the grape in his mouth, chewing slowly. He wanted to tell Jubilation everything was fine and she had nothing to fear from him, but it wasn’t true and he refused to lie to her.

He gave her what he new was likely a useless smile.

“Of course you are not, which is why the content of this vial is in a sealed bottle and not on the grapes you ate” 514A told her. “I have not poisoned you, Jubilation, however there is nothing to say I will not in the future. Or kill you any other way that is convenient”

What was going on? Horrible things, was the definitive answer to that. He had heard about the threats going around but they interested him as far as the colour of his neighbor’s front door did. 514A knew it had the entire city in a panic, and more close to home Jubilation, but other than that at best he admired their tactics. Motivation uncertain, but how they went about it was crafted.

“My time here, being with you, in this building... I have liked being looked at the way you look at me, like I am a person: however the way you treat me has fed dangerous delusions that Isabella Kristen recently liberated me from. I am not a singer or a homeless child, I am an assassin. I kill people, Jubilation. I was created for it. Every tiny detail of my design was specific to that occupation: I was made to infiltrate, mimic and kill” 514A’s hand was shaking, irrationally so, and he dropped both hands under the table in a smooth movement to hide it. The young clone carried on, putting on the voice of the gentleman he saw her talking to. Harry, was it? His posture and expression drifting into that which he observed the man in question using. “From voices to personality, I am designed to copy it all”

Then he flicked back.

“So is Isabella Kristen. We are marvels of biotechnology” He said it with certainty. “We both have very intricate programming and at current her primary objective is Edward Nygma’s whims. Mine are whatever she or Mother commands of me” He paused, watching Jubilee to see if she was understanding him yet. Cautiously, he carried on, voice slow and quiet. “You are placing yourself in a dangerous situation with Isabella Kristen. She and I are weapons, the best the Court of Owls has, and if you continue to display aggressive behaviour to Isabella Kristen’s primary objective then I cannot say for what will happen, only that it will not be pleasant for you”

514A stared at her, bemused.

“Television is not a suitable education tool, I would advise against taking actions of fictional characters so seriously in the future”

“Are you a boy or a girl with that long ass hair?”