(OK, that's what I wondered.)
"You got this Clem, I'm here by your side if you need support." She whispered, bending down to look up at her. "Jason is here too, we're both around to help you through this." Ember continued to whisper, putting a hand on her knee. "You're Clementine Quinzel, you can do anything that's thrown your way!"
"Support has never been your forte, Ember." Clem walked to the entrance of the asylum, the guards letting her in. There was only one person with her hair and her eyes - and they knew her face.
Stung by her words, she followed behind her. She wasn't happy to be here, with these people, or to go see who they were going to. Now Ember wasn't very happy with Clem, growing cold and secluding herself from the others. Her step was five behind the others, and she gave the guard a glare as she passed through the gates.
Clem knew exactly where to go, the place she'd gone many times before. She arrived at Cell #928 to find her mother writing in a notepad.
"Hi, Mother."
Harley looked up, throwing the notepad away as she lept up and got to the glass. "Clementine! What's the reason for a visit? You never visit me!"
Ember watched the two interact, her face set in stone. Cold and closed off. She glared at the other prisoners, to get them to stop looking at her. 'I hate you all. You're weak.' She growled in her thoughts, fixing her gaze on a cell, a floor or two up. "Especially you." She muttered aloud, not even knowing she had.
"Mother, I need to know Father's hide-out."
"I'm offended! Is that all you came for?"
"Yes…it's important."
"Is it now? What has he done?"
"That is…not important."
"Do I not deserve to know?"
"It would break you. Trust me, Mother."
Ember stepped up, right behind Clem. "I don't think she's going to be that easy to sway," Ember whispered, glancing at her friend's face with concern. She had relaxed, feeling not as mad as she had been.
"Trust me, Ember," Clem hissed.
"Oh, hiding secrets from your dear mother? I birthed you, ya know?"
Clem's eyes glowed a very dark purple. Clem said that she couldn't actually control people's minds, but the truth was that she could. She avoided using the ability because it could turn the person she used it on insane, but her mother was already insane. No one could escape it. She'd even used it on the Joker.
"Tell me his hide-out, Mother."
Ember backed up, leaning against the wall. "Whatever you wish." She mumbled, fiddling with her green hair.
"Dirty tactics, Clem," Harley glared, knowing Clem's tricks.
"Tell me."
"He's in the old abandoned Gotham Academy. The one on the coast. He stays in the west wing most of the time."
Ember was surprised to say the least, pushing off the wall. "You're joking. Of course a creeper like him would go there. Nightmare alley." She groaned, rubbing her temple. "Well, are we ready to go Clem?"
"Gotham Academy…" Clem whispered to herself. Her eyes switched from glowing a dark purple to a light blue, a sign of her powers working against her. Memories flashed back into her mind, memories she'd suppressed for years. She let out a scream as her mind was overwhelmed, falling to her knees with her hands covering her ears.
Ember jumped back some, taken aback by her friend. "Clem!?" She asked worriedly, bending down next to her. "Hey, shhh, come on. No one is going to hurt you." She did her best to comfort her, without getting too close. Clem was dangerous to say the least, Ember didn't want to get hurt.
Clem stopped screaming, her scream replaced with worried whispers. She began rocking back and forth, hands shaking. "No no no too much too much can't go back can't go back there no no no."
"Clem, I need you to listen to me." Ember snapped, holding onto her shoulder firmly. "You need to relax, this is for-" She stopped herself, knowing she almost said something dumb. "My sake, I need you to come back. We have to do this."
"Oh Clem," Harley said softly, sinking to the floor. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for bringing you into this world. I'm sorry for not being a mother to you. I'm sorry for giving you the father you have. I'm sorry-"
"You don't get to be sorry for me!" Clem yelled, her eyes switching from blue to purple. "If you were sorry, you would have given me away! You wouldn't have had Lucy! You don't get to be sorry for anything you've done!"
It was something that should have been a private moment, but now many people had heard.
Ember pulled back from her friend, glancing up at the guys. "Let's give them some space." She whispered hoarsely, knowing there wasn't much else to be said. Though she didn't want to watch her friend's mother's heartbreak.
It would slip that Joker had Lucy, she knew it, she couldn't bare being in there to see it happen. "Though, Jason. I might ask you to stay."
"You can't mean that, Clementine. I'm your mother. I look after you."
"Look after me? I spent my first six years in Arkham! This is no place for a child! You broke out more times than I can count and never took me with you! You knew that you would get caught so you just left me here!"
Pushing the others out, besides Jason, she let the cell door shut behind her. "You won't hear me speak up from now on. But that is clearly private. I just don't want Clem to murder her mother, that's why I left Jason." She explained quietly, before slumping against the wall, and sliding down to the floor.
"I didn't mean to! If I'd known you felt like this I never would have done it!"
"That doesn't MATTER! You're supposed to look after me no matter what! That's what a mother does! You're not supposed to think about my feelings in the future, you're supposed to think about my feelings in the present! You never did that!"
Dick gave her an odd look, but didn't speak up after Bruce gave him and even stranger look. It seemed suggestive, but curious. Backing up, Dick turned his gaze away from the distressed Ember.
"What did you expect from me, Clementine?! I'm fucked up!"
"SO AM I!"
"What do you want from me?!"
"I wanted a mother." Clem was now surprisingly calm. "Now I know that will never happen. You're not even close to reforming. You're just as bad as you always were, and you're just using your tactics to tell people otherwise. When I get Lucy back from Dad I'm taking her. Aunt Delia already has enough on her plate and the state would rather her with me."
The yelling was inevitable. You could hear every word that was spoken, until Clem relaxed.
Everything was on Harley now, her words crystal clear. Now she was worried. Ember pushed herself back off the ground, glancing inside the cell. Jason wasn't interfering, so nothing too terrible must be happening.
"You can't take her from me!"
"I can and I will. Jason and I looked after her for a few days last week and she was way happier with us than she ever was. I can't change the way that I turned out but I can change the way she does."
"You can't do this to me!"
"Goodbye mother."
Clem walked out, face stone cold. Her expression remained until she was fully out of the asylum. As soon as she reached her car, she broke down in tears.
"How bad was it?" She asked Jason softly, before coming up to hug her friend. "Honey, what happened?"
Ember was never the best at comforting, and Clem had made that painfully obvious. Yet she still tried. Tears of sadness made her panic, but she was doing her best to stay calm for Clem's sake.
"Not that bad. I'll tell you later. Right now she needs a friend."
Jason hesitantly walked over to the other guys, knowing Ember was with Clem.
"So…Gotham Academy," Tim said.
"Yes. We should go now, stop Joker. Clementine is in too much distress to do this," Bruce added.
"No." Jason retorted. "No, she has to do this. I know for a fact that this will help her."
Ember nodded softly to Jason, pulling Clem into a hug. Her heart ached for the girl she called her friend, rubbing her shoulder gently. "You wanna talk about it? Or do you just want a shoulder to cry on?" Ember asked softly, resting her head on Clem's. "I can do anything you want me to."
"She can't be trusted, Jason," Bruce said sternly.
"Of course she can, Bruce. You think I would still be dating her four years later if I couldn't trust her? You just don't want to work with a villain's kid."
Not receiving an answer, she figured just hugging her was best. Lifting her head, she rested her chin on the top of her head. Ember was being careful, stroking her back and hair.
(Random question, but what if Ember and Dick started to get interested in each other? Would you be cool with that, or not really?)
