A Strange Place

Monday 5th July 2010, 00:40.

Washington D.C,

Cadmus Research Facility.

Again and again.

Memory after memory, each one torturous and painful, only driving him further to the brink as they played out before him on a constant loop. Each of them showed a memory from his past, the moments of him enjoying his life with friends and family, back when he had one. No matter what it was, even just simple moments of peaceful tranquillity that he had long since forgotten, or big moments that he still remembered to this day, they each came to him.

All electing the same feelings of frustration, sadness, loneliness and most of all, rage.

Pure, unadulterated rage.

Rage at being unable to relive them.

Rage at being unable to embrace his parents.

Rage at what had been taken from him.

Rage at the idea of what could have been.

Yet the more they played out, the less strength he had to move, the will within him, always so strong and firm in the face of all adversity, drained from his body leaving him frozen in place. He had just collapsed, losing the will to support his own body, but no matter how hard he tried to block out the sounds or turn away from the sight, they seemed to just follow him.

It was an impossible sight to look away from leaving him trapped, no longer even having the strength to rage as it slowly ebbed away from his body leaving him motionless and emotionless.

He felt empty inside as he watched his younger self resting comfortably on his father's shoulders as the Jacobson family walked through the park. Esau didn't look away, he knew it was impossible to do so, but he wanted to so badly, he wanted nothing more than this all to come to an end. Yet he knew no matter how much he begged and cried for this torture to end, it never did and never would.

Until it finally did.

The ground, not that there had seemed to be any there anyway, gave way and Esau suddenly found himself plummeting towards...a city? The memories faded away into smoke as Esau fell, coming closer and closer to the city that rushed to meet him. Large skyscrapers past him by, houses getting bigger and bigger, and the roads became clearer as the concrete city came to envelop him.

Esau cried out as a single roof lay right beneath him, he was about to crash through it, only for everything to suddenly come to a stop, a warmth washing over him. Slowly, Esau lowered his arms to find himself kneeling on the floor of a very familiar living room, one he recognised instantly, he had been trapped in here for the better part of what felt like an eternity, a room filled with so many emotions and memories, yet it just made him feel numb.

Getting to his feet cautiously, Esau looked around the room, trying to find any sign of life or any clue as to what was happening, half expecting a memory to replay itself. But nothing did, there was just silence and the strange chirping of birds, a strange thing to hear in Gotham, a rare sound in fact and that only put Esau further on edge.

Something was not right.

'Where am I?' He wondered, beginning to move only to suddenly walk into a wall.

It didn't hurt, but reflexively, Esau stumbled away, blinking in shock.

'It's real?' That was definitely a new one and Esau wasn't quite sure what to feel as he continued to cautiously move around the furniture, tracing his fingers over it to confirm that everything was very much real. As stranger as it was, this wasn't like the last time when he was simply trapped as an observer, unable to interact with the memories that unfolded before him. 'Wherever this is, it's real?'

That only made Esau even more cautious as he made his way into the corridor, a staircase right in front of him, leading up to the bedrooms upstairs, to his left a door leading towards the kitchen and to his right, further down, another leading out onto the streets of Gotham. With slow, measured steps, Esau made his way towards the front door, taking a moment before opening it up and stepping out into the bustling, '...empty forest.' He corrected, stepping back inside, closing the door and then quickly reopening it.

Blinking a number of times, Esau tried to wrap his head around what was happening, his shoulders tensing and that strange unsettling feeling only getting worse as he moved further out into the forest. Then, when he turned back around, to find that the city he had seen on his fall down, was gone, but his childhood home remained. It was trapped in a wild expanse of strange, unnatural forests, nothing about this making sense to him and it only put Esau more on edge with every passing second.

His senses were heightened, every chirp of the birds, the movement in the bushes and the shifting of trees made him turn around sharply, expecting something to come and attack him. The numbness that had befallen him was beginning to subside and with it, Esau was becoming more aware of everything around him, the training he had undergone at the hands of Deathstroke and Talon, as well as the numerous losses he had suffered as Black Mask making the hostility in the air palpable.

There was something out there, something dangerous and it was watching him, hunting him.

'Where am I?' Not for the first time, Esau asked himself that question but received no answer, just continuing to move deeper and deeper into the forest. He was unarmed, but with the powers and skills he had gained under Deathstroke, weapons were uncessary to kill, so long as he could get his hands upon whatever was hunting him, he would kill it.

That was when a light began to break through the thick foliage of wildlife ahead, Esau quickening his pace before slowing down just as he reached the edge. Then he crouched down, taking moment to survey what he could see, recognising that beyond this point was an opening in the thick forestry that surrounded him.

There was a large rock formation in the centre with what looked to be a small pond where animals would come to drink, though none were in sight. It was clear of bushes and wildlife, looking more like a well-preserved garden, with rich green grass and beautiful flowers surrounding the rock formation.

After having confirmed nothing was in sight, Esau moved out, intending to climb the rock formation and use its position to his advantage. In the open space, he could see whatever was coming and thanks to the higher ground, he would also be able to react more appropriately. Yet as soon as he stepped out, Esau stumbled, a strange wave of nausea falling over him as he looked up to see the once normal-sized trees stretched to unnatural heights, the tops of them, the roof of leaves nowhere in sight, the trunks stretching out into the sunlight.

Everything about it was unnatural and the strangeness of it made him feel sick, the world around him becoming dizzy.

"Take a deep breath." A voice spoke, cutting through the dizziness of the world as a hand rested upon his shoulder and as if his strings were cut, Esau collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily, sweat dribbling down his face. There was something ethereal and familiar about that voice it made him afraid to raise his eyes and look upon the figure that spoke.

'What the hell is going on with me?' Esau asked himself.

"I suppose I should expect this." Feet moved across his vision, the nails sharp, but they made no sound even as they moved over the grass, almost gliding. There was no indentation of the grass, no bending of every blade beneath the foot, it was almost as if they were floating upon the top of each blade giving the illusion of walking. "Even your 'friends' could not gaze upon my lesser self without that same feeling, though it was to a lesser degree in part due to its weakness. They were lucky."

Then the feet disappeared and that same, suffocating feeling that had weighed down upon him with a crushing weight disappeared, Esau looked up to see a fox laying upon the rocks. Its fur was a brilliant orange, a slight glow surrounding it making it seem almost as if it was a flame as it wafted in the sight breeze that moved across the opening.

"W-what are you?"

"Your protector." The fox replied calmly, its lips remaining closed making no movement to indicate it was speaking, but the way in which its gaze bore into him, Esau knew the voice belonged to it. "We all are." It was only then that Esau noticed that there was not simply one fox before him, but ten and he was certain that they had not been there before, suddenly melting away into existence right before his eyes as if they had been there all along and he simply hadn't seen them.

"Protectors?"

The lead fox, its fur glowing with the brightest light, hummed. "We have been by your side since the beginning, a singular being but one that if we were to assume our real form would be too much for you to bear at this point in time. Yet our goal has been to protect you, but only now have we been able to do anything about it."

Esau didn't know what to say and simply remained silent.

"You said my friends, they were lucky?" He asked. "What did you mean by that? Where are we? Where are they?"

"We are, I suppose, in your mind, or part of it." The fox explained, mouth opening in a yawn as it lowered its head onto its paws. "As for your 'friends,' they came to rescue you from Cadmus."

"My mind?" Esau whispered, unsure of what to believe.

"Your body is in Cadmus, but your mind is here, trapped." The fox continued. "But you do not need..."

Before it could finish, Esau shot to his feet. "Then let me return to my body, back to Cadmus. I can't remain here." Despite his words, the fox remained silent. "Why won't you answer me?" Again, there was silence and Esau grit his teeth, fists clenched by his side. "Answer me!"

"There is no need for you to return." The fox replied calmly. "Here, you are safe but out there, you are in danger. We have watched you closely, from your journey as a child struggling to survive to your fight against the world as Black Hood to that of Marauder. You have fought hard, and sacrificed so much just to survive, why do you want to return? You have become exposed to an even more dangerous world now, just as there was no return to ordinary life for you when you became Black Hood, there will be no return to the safety of Gotham City. The foes you face, and the journey you take, it was become even more dangerous and trying than ever before. Out there, you are in danger. But in here, you are safe. So why leave?"

"Because I have people out there waiting for me," Esau answered firmly, a strange chill falling over him.

"People?" The fox questioned, rising to its feet, the others mirroring it, a strange pressure falling upon the area as Esau felt the temperature rise sharply. "It is people that force you to go out into the dangerous outside of the world? People? Like who?" Esau did not answer, he dare not. "Ah, Barbara Gordon."

Slowly, Esau backed away, ready to make a run for it.

"Then the answer is clear." The fox's voice was chilling, tails rising into the air and there were more than them than there should be, ranging from none, all the way up to eight, with the final one, the lead fox possessing nine impossibly large and ethereal tails that waved angrily, its rage palpable and crushing. "She must die."