A Guest For The Girl In The Coma (Titans/SN)

With a crash that seemed to nearly shake the door from its hinges, Zack burst into his hideout - the ramshackle hallways and rooms of dirt and debris that he called home - for now. He was splattered with blood, and only some of it appeared to be his. Bright silver shone through the bloody ruin of flesh over the center of his chest: the work of a point blank blast of buckshot.

His left hand had a white knuckled grip on his combat knife. It was apparent he'd at least had the foresight to wipe the blade off so as to not leave a trail of blood back to his lair, but it was still caked in the stuff all the way to the hilt. He didn't bother closing the door behind him as he strode over to his table and tossed a new file amongst the others before slamming his blade point down into the wood and pouring over its contents.

He seemed extremely high strung, as if he could snap at any moment. He'd gradually been getting worse and worse over the past month. When he'd first brought Jenny to his home, he'd been manic but laughing and joking. Dark jokes and empty laughter, but jokes and laughter all the same. Now it was rare for him to say anything other than dark mutterings to himself, and on more than one occasion he'd awoken from the passed out state of over exhaustion he called "sleep" knife in hand and in mid swing. It was apparent: He was deteriorating.

Jenny arrived late that night having been out she lately for her own reasons had been losing herself like Zack but for her own reasons but recently she had been looking for the person who had hurt miley so long ago.  But now as she walked into the hide out that's door was wide open she pulled out one of her swords on her leg and held it back handed as she crept forward until she found only zack inside and working.

What ever he had bee doing lately it was certainly wearing himself thin to have left the front door wide open. She put her sword away and closed the front door and sat down and pulled out her computer and started working on it. a bit into the morning she found what she was looking for.... the clip of lilith beating miley into a coma. Jenny clenched her teeth and hands as her irises turned bright blue. she... she did this to miley....? she thought as the clip played the audio fully working.

Zack was so completely tuned into what he was reading that he didn't notice Jenny come in. His brow furrowed and his eyes burned into the paper. Hew rubbed them and realized they were burning themselves as well. How long since he'd last slept? At least two days. No. No time to thing about that. He had to save her. He knew he was probably looking for a corpse at this point. He knew the chances of her still being alive were slim beyond measure.

The thoughts made him angrier, and he threw the file across the room in disgust. Another dead end. He wrenched his knife from the table and stared at it for a long moment. What now? He was out of leads, out of answers... His grip on the blade tightened until it looked like his skin would burst. He didn't care how many more he had to kill. He would find her. He was about to stride back out into the night when he paused. He didn't close the door. He must be more lost than he thought... Then he blinked. He didn't close the door.

So why was it closed now? He turned and saw Jenny, her back to him. She was on the computer, as usual. He was certain that damned thing would rot her brain one day... But then he heard it. No. That couldn't be... But it was. His entire body stiffened. That was Miley's voice. With his customary silence he was suddenly standing right behind Jenny, eyes practically burning a hole in her laptop screen as they fixated on Lilith. Once the clip ended, there was a long moment of silence, which seemed to hang heavy in the air.

"WHO. WAS. THAT." Zack's voice cut through the silence like a keen blade, his hand gripping the back of Jenny's chair so tightly it began to crush the wood.

Jenny blinked then as she heard Zack  as the clip showed Jenny running up to miley the jenny on the screen shouting  "No.... NO MILEY!" The video jenny then skid on the ice a bit nearly slipping but kneeled down and picked her up. "#%!$ no! Miley!" Jenny then closed her laptop which cut off the sound and video as she looked to him. "Someone who is probably going to be dead by the end of the month for hurting one of my best friends..... what's it to-...."

She noticed a look in his eye and her tone turned from that of one that matched someone who was asked about personal info on a sensitive topic by someone she didn't totally trust yet to one that sounded understanding as she asked. "Do you know Miley....?"

Zack's eyes narrowed as he watched the end of the video. He'd been driven further and further off the edge of insanity and had literally murdered several people who claimed they knew nothing about Miley's disappearance. It turned out they were telling the truth, but he'd just pressed on. And the whole time, the one person who could have pointed him in the right direction had been living with him, just one room away.

If he hadn't bnen so high strung, the irony would have had him rolling on the floor. In fact, anyone who knew him would likely find his lack of laughter anywhere from odd to outright worrisome. "Know her?" His grin twitched and cold fury dripped from his voice. "I've been turning this city upside down trying to find her. I've been..." No. He didn't really know Jenny. He didn't want to admit how absolutely terrified he's been, to the point of hysteria. But now, having watched exactly what happened, that terror turned to killer intent. "......... Is she dead?"

She eyed him as he said he had been turning the entire city over just to find her and nodded mumbling to herself. "that would explain all the reports of missing people that has bee on the street lately...." she then noticed his question... he probably cared for her, she didnt know what she was to him but the fact that zack cared for her said a lot. She turned in her chair to face him and shook her head. "No, I managed to play her to some old mutual friends of ours.

I had no money for a hospital to pay for the damages done to her nor could i properly heal her but having been a titan many times before I knew the tower had what she needed. That and that she would be safe there. I didnt know if our stalkers were the cause so i didnt want to bring her to a hospital for the additional reason of she was far less safe there than in a high level security building full of super powered trained i the field teens that she trusts."

She explained rather calmly. "The machines managed to heal her to where she doesn't look like she was even hit once but... shes currently in a coma... she has been since she had that large amount of physical trauma. both of our best friend's has been checking on her every day since i cant be there all the time and so far not too long ago her body slightly moved so there is hope for her waking up." she sighed ad looked up at him

"look i dont know who you are to her which based on your reactions is someone who cares for her clearly, I would have told you about her the moment i brought her to the tower later making sure she was stable. If you want I could set up something so you can go and see her as soon as possible it wont be too hard and it shouldnt take longer than the hour or so trip from here to jump." she explained to him in a calm manner

"Titans?"Zack's eyes narrowed. He'd wanted to avoid dealing with those jokes. They were so wrapped up in being heroes that they failed to see the big picture. That, and they seemed to fight themselves more than each other. Jenny finished talking, but Zack was barely listening. The tower... That would be a tough nut to crack. But Now he knew... After so long, now he knew.

After becoming more and more and more frantic and desperate, after he had slowly began to lose hope in ever finding any trace of the only good thing in his life, here she was. This was far more than the lead he'd been so desperate for: This was a definite location. He strode over to his planning table - littered with blueprints and maps and files all on various experiments, government facilities, and unspeakable atrocities.

He knelt beneath it and pulled out a stack of files from a box after a moment of rummaging. With a sweep of his arm, his carefully laid out plans and intel concerning L.A.W. were thrown to the ground to make room for a new set of blueprints, an new map, and a new set of files: A blueprint of the tower, a map of the island it stood on, and a detailed file on each Titan complete with power analysis, weaknesses seen and theorized, and psychological profiles.

The fact alone that these existed had terrifying implications, however it seemed that until now they'd been gathering dust in their own box, practically forgotten. As he spread out the various pieces of intel and began his process of looking for weaknesses and other such critical details that would get him in as close to unnoticed as possible, he spoke - almost as an afterthought. "I'm getting in. Set up whatever you want. "

"But I'm taking the fastest available timetable." After a moment he added, more accidentally thinking aloud than talking to her, "Nothing is going to keep me from you, Miley... I promised." He poured over the map of the island and the blueprints for a long moment before turning to a stack of maps and charts on another table, sorting through them before finding one he wanted - a larger scale chart of the island and the surrounding city.

Detail about the island was scarce on this one, unlike the intel from L.A.W., but he wasn't necessarily looking at just the island. He was walking back to the planning table with it when he stopped, and a borderline comical look crossed his face. "Wait, what did you say?" He tossed the chart in the vague direction of the planning table, though since he was barely a foot away most of it landed on the table, with about a third of it hanging off.

He walked over to Jenny and clamped her shoulders in a vice like grip, one hand on each shoulder. "You can get me in in an hour?" His eyes narrowed as he leaned in, his face inches from hers. "Next time, lead with that."

Jenny blinked and stared at him as he let the area and called over to him. "so is that a no...?" she blinked watching him and got up walking over. she saw him sweep the plans off and picked them up rolling them back up as she eyes him thinking 'he tossed law plans over to the side for miley.... he must really care for her to do that to plans on something hes been trying to destroy for such a long time.

She listened to him and glanced at the plans keeping a straight face but cursed in her mind. though she then walked over and put the law plans in the rightful box. "fine just dont go trashing the law plans as you know we need them in usable condition." she started to leave the room but he spoke up again and as she turned to face him his hands planted on her shoulders.

She looked at him and nodded. "Yeah its not that hard, hack in message hotwire or who ever is there tell them i need in they should know me and all i have to do is tell them im coming in with a friend to visit miley and they'll let us in its really not as hard and complicated as your making it out to be miley was an original member of the team part of why they let her stay and ive been an on and off member for a few years now so they know me."

she then gave him the look that said he was stupid. "I did someone was just choosing not to listen.... now get a car started and i'll grab my stuff i can talk to them on the way there or do you want to go back to your plan?"  she asked raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know what could possibly posses you to think it's a no." Zack's brow furrowed as he more or less caught up to the conversation. "I'm listening, I'm always listening. You're just not saying things in the right order. And I know what I'm doing with L.A.W. plans, this is just.... Important. Let's just go, dammit. I have a car." He shoved roughly past her before stopping and turning around. "I should...  Reload. Just in case."

He walked to a box in the corner and pulled out several fresh magazines. He let the ones inside his jacket simply drop to the floor with several resounding thuds. "I'm not abut to leave on empty." He chuckled and walked past Jenny once more. "Follow me. I keep it nearby, in case we need to leave in a hurry. You get working on whatever you need to set this up."

She narrowed her eyes at him still "okay if your always listening what did i say to you 2 days ago at 12 oclock?" she then sighed at the law part. "I know... just be careful." She said in a calmer manner. She looked at him and  stumbled back as he roughly past her, he might be upset but he really shouldn't be being this rude to her since if it wasnt for her hed still have no idea where miley was, hell if it wasnt for her miley probably would be in a far worse condition than she was now.

Jenny  sighed softly once more as he started to reload while she grabbed her back pack and laptop putting it on and holding her laptop under her arm. "right" She then climbed in the car and buckled up sitting down and opened her laptop and started to hack in and left a message for hotwire

The two walked out towards a nearby treeline where Zack started clearing tree branches from a car that had previously been hidden. "How should I know? I wasn't here. But it was probably something along the lines of" Zack closed his eyes and held up a finger in mock indignation "Zack, I swear if you've fried my hard drive again I will kill you."

It seemed that with the prospect of seeing Miley coming so close, little pieces of his former self were beginning to shine through. "And like I told you, those other times weren't my fault - You left your stuff in my way and I needed to move it." He finished clearing the branches from the car and sighed as he looked it over. Miley had given him this car. He shook his head gto clear it and opened the driver's door. Zack scoffed as he pulled his rifle off of his back and placed it between them.

"I don't get it with you kids and your "hacking." Why does anyone bother making anything digital if some teen can just wave their hands over something and break in? Oh, and fasten your seat belt. The last guy who didn't had a bit of a rude awakening." He gestured to a hole in the windshield roughly the size of a person.

Jenny pulled off some tree branches and climbed in and buckled up as he spoke. "It was a trick question, cause I wasn't here either at that point of time either if you would have said a reply then clearly you weren't paying attention due to me not even being here." He seemed to be going back to his regular self as he mocked her and she rolled her eyes.

"well at least your dead on. it took me 5 hours to rebuild my fire walls and over $200 dollars to get a new top of the line hard drive to replace my old one. and like I said last time next time just slide it off to the side with a stick or something fixing a broken screen from you pushing it off the counter costs way less than fixing and replacing a hard drive and takes way less time." She then started to type on her computer messaging hotwire.


Jennys message: Hotwire, you know the girl in the medical bay? You know Miley? Well I ran across her boyfriend and he of course wants to see her. After i calmed him down he agreed to calmly come to the tower and not do a full scale invasion of it (Not an exageration....) he seemed willing to agree with just  letting me talk to you about getting the doors open and letting us in and just calmly drive there which he already has me in the car and driving soooo we'll be there in around an hour but i would like your permission to get into the tower.

Hotwire: Ugh... do you realize what a security hazard that is? Ok. Look. I know I owe you on, so I'll let it slide. But I'm going to have eyes and ears on this every step of the way. Something goes wrong. I pull the plug on this visit. Are we clear?

"hacking is an under rated skill, will how much technology is around these days if you are a master hacker like me you generally can control anything, learn anything, open anything, get limitless amounts of money. send countries into the stone age by destroying and exploding technology everywhere by over working all computers or reprogramming things to over work stuff to destroy them, hell you could even blow up any country or place by hacking into the controls for the us' nucular bombs."

"For example I commonly hack in and past hotwire's fire walls in the tower to talk to him like I am now. They are better than national security's fire walls that I hacked as a kid for fun butstill its not that hard.  I have currently access to all their files like hotwires odd obsession over someone named mr pigeon and all their data they have there the only real way right now I could be thrown out is if hotwire or yang   competitively hacked against me to try and shove me out or if hotwire cheated and blew up my computer from afar with his powers."

"Everything in the tower runs on tech so anyone who hacks in and can control things they can control the tower and spy all over the tower cause they have cameras everywhere and i mean eeeeverywhere. So basically master hacking and you can #%!$ anyone and everyone up. When I was traveling a lot as a kid i always hacked into many places to get money  pre paid restaurant reservations to get food, break into stores for clothes, and to claim a hotel room was taken when it wasnt so i could stay there for the night."

"Due to knowing all of this and how easy it is to track down anyone form their social media and phones or computers I make sure the only piece of technology I own is my bike and my computer that  the only people i have even known to be u to par against me in them being able to out beat me or rival me in my skills is yang ad hotwire so basically with how i set up my computer the only one who could #%!$ me over and track me down with my computer is them."

"Which is good considering everything I have on my computer, and had to regain after you blew my hard drive. I have all the records in the police stations in jump and jewel, the titans data base  which it's totally up to date since i stopped copy the files after i left this last time to respect their space, many government files. all the files that was at the asylum law ran that i got with hotwires help and all of which data relating to me and nightingale I made sure was erased."

"And other things like that all in my computer but has a lock on it so even i have to hack into my own computer to get to the data." she finished typing and closed her laptop.

Jenny: Security hazard....? I'll pretend how I'm messaging you isn't happening then so  the 'hazard' doesnt appear to grow prove to be less of a threat than this or me. I didn't think you owed me anything but okay I'll take it. Alright though I wouldnt say that to him, if you did  he might freak out since he already thought you all were possibly working with the same guy trying to hunt us down and give us lives worse than death. but look please just try to be nice... Miley is literally all he has in his life and he has been literally endlessly searching for her up till now not even really stopping for food or sleep so just please try not to push him please he already can barely deal with my smart *#& remarks.

Hotwire: I won't even approach him. I'll set the elevator to send him up to the medbay. But I will be watching. And listening.

Jenny: thank you for the help hotwire.... really.... thank you

"he says its cool  we'll be able to go right in when we get there he just requests that we behave while there and we'll be good to go."

"Or you know... You could pick up after yourself." He shook his head as he closed the door and started the car. As he started to drive, he glanced at Jenny as she went on about everything a master hacker could do. "That's exactly my point, Jenny." He didn't seem to notice that he'd used her real name for once instead of "girlie" or "love" as he continued.

"That's what I don't get: If people like you can just waltz into their all powerful vaults from a car in the woods, then why bother making them? I said it to you when we met, and I'll say it again: The only thing more dangerous than the lack of knowledge is the assumption of knowledge. People think they're safe with all of their electronic gizmos, but then people like you and that Hotwire kid laugh at them."

"Far better to keep it somewhere in person. That way if someone is breaking into your stuff, you can shoot them. And I feel like when L.A.W. makes their move, this "network" where everything is "remote accessed" is going to make it easier than ever for them to take over." He stared of into space for a moment before swearing loudly as something clicked in his mind. "L.A.W. predates the internet. You don't suppose this whole network was their idea to start with, do you?"

Zack seemed to liven up a bit more, less of the cold fury in his eyes that Jenny had been sing for the past month and more of his original manic curiosity and maddened spark. "I mean, think about it? If you want to take over the world, what better way than to make sure all of the resources of it's biggest superpower can be at your fingertips with a few button presses? And What about the other countries that followed suit? We're worse off than I thought."

His words hung in the air like the last reverberations of a funeral bell, solomn and grim. If the madman thought things were worse than he'd been estimating so far, then things looked dire indeed.

She blinked as he called her jenny... nope too weird "dont call me that...its too weird coming from you." she nodded "agreed which is why i keep stuff that actually means something to me far from the reach of others but i guess they put up the walls  to protect themselves as much as they can even if it is only protecting them from a small amount of people." she then thought about what he said blinking

"man thats one game breaking theory.... if thats true then its possible that they gathered all this info as it was put out which means the things we hid after learning how is meaningless because they already have it...." she looked forward thoughtfully "if they do have a hold on everything in this network.... everything we had that we thought moved us ahead of them is worthless... no matter how fast we go in getting info through the net... they would have already been the first ones to get it....

"Call you what?" He seemed confused for a moment before shrugging and going back to the topic at hand. "That's probably true... Though from what I can tell, they've had an impressive stockpile of knowledge for a while... You know, I think they're just sitting on this network, grabbing anything new that comes out for their own records." He squinted thoughtfully.

"That's what I would do in their place: Hide in the shadows while I prepared whatever else needed doing for my master plan, keeping an eye on anything new that develops and saving a copy of anything useful. That could be why they've had such a hard time tracking me - I'm not exactly network friendly." He chuckled, but then his laughter caught dead in his throat. "But you.... You are." He turned to look at her, his brow furrowed in concern.

"Just how certain are you that they don't know how to track you? If they're behind the network, couldnit they find you without a problem? We know they know all about you, including your skills... They could be using it against us. Again, that's what I would do. And they made me."

"jenny... you never call me by my name... its weird coming from you..." jenny nodded "same here in fact it partly what i did for a good part of my life as i moved from place to place. though my master plan wasnt taking over the world." she didnt seemed to phased as he brought the information up.

"i never said i knew they couldn't... i'm just hard to follow now that i know about them but i have doubt in my mind that they haven't came after me again yet because they dont want to yet not because they cant follow me... they followed me my entire life and have record info on my entire life. they found where i lived... they know here i am at all times when im not at the hide out.... to be honest... i've stopped hiding... because its pointless the only time i try to cover my tracks from them is when im with you or miley because you two dont deserve to be dragged down with me... but if its just me..."

"Well i have honestly given up on fighting back...." she said never one looking at him as she stared forward with a straight face. The two drove for the next hour talking occasionally on their way there.