ALTERNATE LIVES
Part Four
I slept late the next day - or the same day, depending on how one was counting. It was already noon when I strolled into the kitchen in the jeans and the blue and red T-shirt Alfred had left for me in the guestroom. The older man greeted me in the kitchen, but except for him no one else was around. I still wasn't sure of what Dick Grayson did for a living, but he seemed to have an ordinary life as well.
"Good morning, Miss Helena", Alfred said. "Should I get you something? Coffee, tea, orange juice?"
"Just point me in the right direction and I'll see to it myself, Alfred", I said, greeting him with a smile.
"Oh, the shock of it!" he said, pretending to be insulted. "It's out of the question, Miss Helena. Sit down and I'll make you breakfast."
I realized there was no use arguing the point. "Milk, please", I said.
"Ah, must be your mother's genes making themselves known", he said.
"Ha, ha - funny", I said dryly.
"I apologize for any insulting remarks an old fool like me could make", he said. "I was very fond of your mother, mind you."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Somehow I would think it a mistake to take you for an old fool, Alfred", I said as I sat down. He only smiled friendly towards me.
"You don't say?" he added, in a very British accent that made me smile.
"You met my mother?"
"Yes, yes I did - indeed. A very lovely woman."
"Yes", I agreed with a slight, sad nod. "She was." I watched him as he poured me milk and orange juice, made me scrambled eggs with mushrooms, toast and porridge. "You knew my father quite well, didn't you?"
"I was... like a father figure", Alfred said with a slight melancholy note. "Poor Bruce, losing his parents so young."
I only nodded. I had done my homework quite well in regards to Bruce Wayne and Batman. I had no doubt I knew everything about them that there was to know unless you were as privately involved with them as Alfred, Barbara and Dick. And maybe Dinah, but I doubted she'd had much intimate contact with my father. She seemed closer to Barbara and Dick.
"He is a good man, your father. Few as they come." Alfred placed the food on different plates on the table and an empty plate before me. "Not all people understood him - he was lonely behind his mask. Both of his masks."
"You mean he wore one as Bruce Wayne as well?"
"Oh, yes." Alfred nodded knowingly. "That's what it's like, being a living legend. His two faces could never meet, you see. He always had to choose between the one and the other. It takes its toll on a man, living like that. Luckily he had Miss Barbara and Master Dick to balance him. They were quite good for him together."
Remembering the two of them at the fair, playing at hitting the pyramid, I understood what he meant and nodded. I could believe that.
"He was a man of mysteries, your father." Alfred smiled at me. "Much like yourself, Miss Helena."
I blinked. "What - me? No." I shook my head. "No mysteries there. Only me." Only anger and rage. Alfred made a tssking sound.
"I beg to differ, Miss Helena. Just beware not to lose yourself amongst the shadows. It's a dangerous game, the one you and your father are playing."
"I'm not playing anything. If he wants to hide in the shadows that's his business. I'm only trying to find someone..."
"Scaring the living daylight out of the lower thugs, so I've heard", Alfred said with a nod. "Even heard the greater fishes are out to get you now."
"You hear too much to be a butler, Alfred", I said and he laughed softly.
"Maybe, maybe so."
We heard the elevator at the same time and turned our heads towards it. It took a couple of seconds before it stopped at the floor below us.
"Miss Barbara usually comes home for lunch", Alfred said right before the elevator doors opened. "But never on a Tuesday." He stepped towards the railing, looking down with a slight frown. I remained seated at the table, finishing my breakfast. Alfred had made way too much food - even for me.
"Alfred!" Barbara called from the floor below us as she stepped out of the elevator. I couldn't see her, but when hearing her voice something in my chest thudded harder. I heard on her steps she was in a rush. "Good to see you, Alfred."
"You too, Miss Barbara. Is everything...?"
"The dinner, Alfred. I forgot about the damn dinner tonight."
"Ah", Alfred said with a smile. I finished my orange juice, listening intently and with interest. "The gala for the mayor's birthday. Did I forget to remind you, Miss Barbara?"
"I'm sure you didn't", I heard her say and grinned when I noted the slight aggravated tone, "so stop sounding so apologetic."
Alfred grinned too, winking at me. Apparently Barbara was looking in another direction.
"Is Helena still here?"
"Oh, yes - she is."
I rose and went to the railing as Alfred stepped back.
"Hi", I said, looking down at her. She was dressed in a black suit and looked amazing with her red hair pulled back in a loose tail. She looked up somewhat startled, standing by the computer system (Delphi - or whatever).
"Oh, hey", she said. She stood watching me for a second and I became uncomfortable with the scrutiny, not sure what to make of it. I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
"Alfred made me some breakfast, but it's enough for that ninja-company we run into yesterday. There's more. Want some?"
She smiled and my heart lifted immediately. "Yes, please." She ascended the stairs, still talking. "I only came home to snatch a couple of hours sleep." She tilted her head to one side as she reached the top of the stairs, watching me again. "Slept well?" she asked gently and I nodded.
"No nightmares about identical multiple twins in black ninja suits", I said.
"None about killing me in my sleep either, I hope?" she asked in a low voice with a swift glance at Alfred in the kitchen. I shook my head.
"I..." I didn't know what to say. Last nights conversation was still fresh in my mind, but I didn't know what to make of it yet. Things seemed to happen too much too quickly and I had decided I was going along with it so far - to see where it took me. I figured I could always make a break at it later on and run if it seemed too... unhealthy. "No."
"Good", she said with a smile and moved to the kitchen table.
"Busy day?" Alfred asked, pouring some tea for Barbara and placing it on the table opposite my seat. I sat down with her.
"God - yes!" She glanced at the table and snatched my plate from beneath me. "Don't mind, do you?" she asked as she filled it with scrambled eggs and mushrooms. I shook my head and watched her with an amused smile as she ate.
"This Mr. Boyd making trouble again?" Alfred asked, making conversation.
"Loads", she said with her mouth full. She chewed, drank and continued: "He lured Greg Taylor into a deal he was in no authority to make and now wants to sue me for breach of contract."
"Shouldn't Mr. Taylor get the blame for this?" Alfred asked.
"Greg is a good man - I won't throw him to the fishes for one mistake. Dick's on to it. He found some old cases with similar dilemmas and thinks he can work around the problem. But he said it will cost us a lot."
"Always does", Alfred said sadly, but Barbara shrugged.
"It's only money. I prefer this battle - no cost of actual lives."
Dick I thought. A lawyer? Go figure.
Barbara finished her tea in a rush, her plate already empty, and stood up. She flashed me a quick smile. "Sorry I didn't get time to speak to you, but need to get some hours sleep before next meeting. You can watch the gala with Dick and Dinah from Delphi tonight." She made a face. "It's bound to be boring, but you never know. See you later."
And then she was gone again.
"Always on the run somewhere, that one", Alfred said lowly at my side as we watched Barbara disappear up the stairs. I didn't argue with him on that one.
Later that day the old man showed me the entrance to the Clocktower. It was lodged to Barbara Gordon's house and from the outside it seemed to be a backyard entrance to her place. The thing was - the outer door leading in to the hallway ended quite abruptly. Then you had two options: to get through the massive oak- and steel reinforced door in front of you - leading to the rest of Barbara Gordon's house - or to find the secret entrance to the Clocktower. To find the secret entrance you needed three things: a code, an entrance clearing and to know where and how to use your code and the clearing.
When in the hallway you needed to find a certain panel in the wall, press it softly and it would slide aside, revealing a small, embedded disk with numbers and a mirror. You had to press the right code and to press your hand on the mirror. Doing so the wall behind you would slide away, giving entrance to a short tunnel protected by steel walls. The tunnel ended in another wall - steel enforced. You had to repeat the procedure from before to get the wall to slide to one side and reveal the elevator.
"It's a fucking fortress, this place!" I said as I'd gone through the procedure.
"That's the whole point, Miss Helena", Alfred said, slightly affronted. It took awhile before I realized he reacted to me swearing.
"Um, sorry", I said, belatedly.
"Miss Barbara told me this morning she had programmed the mirror to acknowledge your handprint", Alfred added. "She picked up your handprint from the elevator-ride you did with her yesterday. Apparently you leaned on something." He blinked innocently at me. "The code I just gave you is the one assuring your entrance. Remember it and never tell anyone about it. It's a great responsibility."
I shook my head. "I won't tell", I said, sure I would carry Barbara's secret with me to the grave.
"Good." He smiled at me. "Then you're welcome at any time, Miss Helena. You don't have to call before... and you most certainly don't have to use the window entrance."
"I might anyway", I said with a wink. "It's more fun that way."
I went back to my apartment above the Dark Horse and looked around in the gloomy room. Nothing in there felt like mine. The wallpaper was torn, the sink was leaking, the fridge smelled and cockroaches seemed more attached to the place than I. The previous inhabitant had been a drunkard and died suffocating in his own bed. I had gotten the room cheap. There was another apartment right next to mine that was larger and in much better shape. If I had been the least interested in my life the last eight months I would have chosen that one, but as it was... When I traded my spacious, almost luxurious two-room apartment at the outskirts of the University Campus for this one I would have accepted a newly dug grave as my lodge.
"Shit", I mumbled as I realized I would never want Barbara Gordon to walk in through that door seeing my place like this. Maybe she was right in what she said that night, when she was Batgirl. There were better places to spend your life than in shadows and dark alleys.
Maybe I ought to fix it up? I thought and looked around. Some new wallpapers or paint, new floor instead of the seemingly always damp carpet... some cleaning up and food in the fridge. Even if it was small it had potential. I decided I was going to do it. It was time for a change in my life - it didn't mean I would forget about my mother or the way she had died.
I spend the day cleaning up as far as it was possible and that in itself seemed to make the place a less dark space; the windows really needed a cleaning.
At twilit I returned to the Clocktower, where I found Dick and Dinah watching the screens above Oracle's desk. Dinah turned and waved at me as I stepped out of the elevator.
"Come, look", she said excitedly, giving me a brilliant smile. I smiled back. Somehow it felt impossible being down in the girls company; she made me feel welcome.
"Look at her", Dick said with awe, not taking his eyes of the screen. I moved closer, raising my eyes to the screens to see what they were watching.
"Barbara..." Dinah said with a smile. "Isn't she beautiful?" She bent forward and pressed some buttons at Delphi and the screens zoomed in at two people from the large crowd. They seemed to be entering a large hall, with vaults leading to two spacious areas and a large stair in front of them. I recognized the man leading Barbara by the hand: it was Wade Brixton, the guidance counselor from Dinah's school.
"She sure is", I said as I watched Barbara moving forward in a long, sparkling pale yellow evening gown. She moved gracefully and seemed to be the perfect lady - yet another side of her I hadn't seen, although there were traces of the woman I had met in the park and the woman she called Oracle. As I watched she extended her hand to an elderly man with gray hair and he kissed it, lingering a little longer than necessary above it.
"The mayor's husband", Dick said, amused. "He always had a secret crush on Barbara."
"Not that secret as it would seem", I said dryly and he laughed. I glanced at him and noticed the fond look in his eyes as he watched his friend. I wondered if he felt anything more for her than only friendship. If he did he hid it carefully. He seemed to sense my eyes on him and turned his head.
"Nice to see you again, Huntress."
"You too", I said with a small smile. "You think we'll have as fun tonight as we did yesterday?"
He made a face. "Doubtfully - that was a once-a-month thing. You probably have to wait until next full moon to get that kind of a kick again. Hope that won't put you off?"
I blinked. "You aren't serious, are you? You do these kind of things often? Full power - fully armed warriors?"
Dick laughed at my astonished look. "Oh yes. That's New Gotham's arsenal, my friend. Never a dull moment. Yesterday was just another bad-ass kicking exercise on full scale - it happens quite regularly."
"Wow - I've been sheltered", I said dryly and he grinned.
"He's exaggerating", Dinah added, feigning a reproachful glance at Dick. "It's just the past twelve or thirteen months it's been like this. We've come to be aware of a very powerful, organized crime syndicate..."
"Really?" I said interested.
"Yes, but we don't know who runs it or what they want."
"What they want?"
Dick nodded seriously. "Organized criminals always want something more than smashing windows and robbing old folks. These ones have tried stealing weapons from the government, blowing up the Court House, killing the mayor... Amongst other things."
"It was always different people doing the operations", Dinah filled in. "We caught them, but Oracle begun suspecting they were somehow connected."
I nodded, again looking at the screen and the gala held for the mayor's birthday at the Town Hall. "Weren't you invited?"
"School night", Dinah said, as if it explained everything.
"Boring", Dick said, hiding a mock yawn.
"Why is she with that dork anyway?" I said as I watched Barbara lean on Wade Brixton's arm and kiss him on the cheek.
"Beats me", Dick said with a shrug. "She ought to date someone like..." He frowned. "I don't know who would fit, actually. Darkstrike would fit, but... He's out."
"Darkstrike?" I asked, glancing at him.
"Yeah, an old friend. A good man, but he turned... twisted when his girlfriend died." Dick shrugged. "A tragic story."
"Wade's nice", Dinah said. "But you're right. He's a little dull..." She looked at me, but I didn't take my eyes off Barbara as she moved across the hall, exchanging pleasantries with people. It was only the cr�me the la cr�me that was invited, but watching them I realized I found Barbara by far the most beautiful of them all. There was something real about her - something that seemed to resist turning into this plastic doll as the others had become. When she smiled it was a genuine smile and her eyes were lively, intense and sometimes gentle as she greeted people. She was like some shining beam in a room full of shadows - or as a sparkling star on the night-vault.
"His parents adore her", Dick said dryly. "But I gather it has to do with her money and nothing else. If she'd been poor and cripple they wouldn't want anything to do with her."
"He is quite smart, but nowhere near Barbara's IQ", Dinah added.
"You think he's too dumb for her?" I said dryly.
"Um... well, yes."
"He doesn't make her... sparkle, if you know what I mean." Dick glanced at me.
"She seems sparkling enough to me", I said as I watched the woman of whom we were speaking talk to Wade by her side. I felt a slight pang of unexpected jealousy seeing them so close together and was tempted to agree with Dick just for spite.
"If she marries him she'll die of boredom within a fortnight", Dinah said with a dramatic sigh.
"Or his parents will drive her mad", Dick added. "I can't imagine what he must be like in bed. Bo-oring..."
I snorted and noticed Barbara on her own for a second. Wade had apparently left to get them something to drink. She raised her hand to her mouth as if to cough and in the same second we all heard her voice from Delphi through the speakers on the desk in front of us.
"If you are going to discuss my love life behind my back, at least do it with your intercoms off", she said.
"Oh, God!" Dinah clasped her hands to her mouth. "Barbara - we're so sorry!" she said, somewhat muffled behind her hands.
�I bet you are! Dick - you ought to be ashamed!"
I bent forward, talking into the microphone on the desk. "He's blushing", I said helpfully.
�And you shouldn't encourage them!" she banned.
"Don't worry - I won't spread the secrets of Barbara Gordon and Wade Brixton to any other."
She snorted and someone in the background said:
"Bless you."
�Thank you, dear", she said and was lost in a conversation with an elderly lady. I grinned, watching her.
"Shit!" Dick said, still slightly colored and I laughed out loud.
"Serves you both right!" I said. I glanced one last time at the screen, noting the slight, amused smile in the corner of Barbara's mouth and knew she had heard me. I suddenly longed to meet her again - either she was Batgirl or Oracle or just plain herself.
"When is she back?" I asked when I was sure the microphone was off.
"Don't know", Dick said. "She probably stays with Wade tonight." He grinned. "She has to give him something every now and then to keep him happy."
"Dick - that was gross", Dinah said with a grimace. I agreed, not knowing why - talk about other people's sex-life never bothered me before.
"Right", I said.
Dick shook his head with a rueful gesture. "She's just so worked up, you know. She never seems to enjoy herself... I mean - she plays so many roles I'm not even sure she knows whom she is anymore."
"She's always been like this?" I asked, trying to form a picture of the woman that was Barbara Gordon. Dick suddenly hesitated and I got the feeling he wanted to hide something.
"Um... The years have changed her, I guess. And the responsibilities." He avoided looking at me and I nodded and turned away.
"I've got to get to work", I said. "See you both later."
"Wait!" Dinah halted me and gave me her necklace, a small silver-moon in some strange metal and one of her earrings.
"What...?" I said.
"Use these... This is how we communicate. Barbara will get you some of your own later, but for now..." Dinah showed me how to trigger the connection.
"Awesome", I said, impressed, fingering the jewelry.
"Sure is", Dick said grumpily and I grinned when I figured what he was getting at; it wasn't particularly handy when someone could listen in on a private conversation.
"Barbara wears a ring sometimes", Dinah said. "You noticed, right?"
I nodded.
"Usually she wears both a ring and a necklace, just to be on the safe side", Dick said and I eyed him closely.
"And you? Where's your jewelry?"
"No earrings at least", he said and showed me the golden chain he wore around his neck. "I have an implant in my ear", he added. "I tried the earring-thing, but too many men made a pass on me. I considered it safer to make a small surgical cut."
"But... how do you turn it on an off?"
"It's connected to my neck-chain", he explained and showed me the chain had two clasps.
I fastened the necklace around my neck and the earring in my left earlobe. "Great. I'm working at the bar until midnight. After that I'll do some patrolling."
"We'll let Barbara know", Dinah said with a nod. "Be careful."
I grinned at her. "Don't know the meaning of that word, kid-o!"
After work that night I roamed the streets, feeling the cool night-wind in my face. I scaled the buildings of Gotham - keeping to my old parts of town - keeping an eye out for any shady businesses on the streets. I needed time to think. Time to collect my thoughts to make some conclusion about what had been going on the last few days.
The word on the streets had been that my mother's death had everything to do with Batman. It was said the Joker had hired an assassin to get the work done, but the Joker wasn't capable of uttering a single word that made sense. I knew that if he had been behind the murder he wouldn't have passed an opportunity to gloat at me when I visited him - pretending to be insane or not. That's why I figured two things: first - he had truly lost his mind. Second: he wasn't behind my mother's murder.
I wondered if this Shadow-guy that tried making contact with me the other night worked for the organization Barbara was chasing. If he did maybe I should have taken him up on his offer - to infiltrate the organization. By now it would be too late - he had already seen me with Batgirl and his boss would figure I had made my choice between them.
I stopped and remained unmoving at the top of a tall, dark building. Making a choice... Was that what I had done? Did I choose side - to fight for the good guys? Why? Because of an inane need to be close to Barbara Gordon? What was that need about, anyway? Where did it come from and what did it mean? I couldn't answer that. The only thing I knew, was that I felt it as if I had known Barbara Gordon my whole life and as if she was suppose to have been in my life long before now - as if some unforeseen event years and years ago had changed the course of our lives and prevented us from ever meeting.
I knew it sounded silly, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Barbara and I somehow were connected. We belong together, I thought with a sudden chill. I didn't know what the thought meant, but it affected me strongly.
I hated being confused. It messed up my life. I preferred things to be straight and clean -pure emotions as anger, hurt, want... it was clean and uncomplicated. Barbara's presence muddled my perceptions. I didn't know what was what anymore - no anger without guilt, no hurt without wanting to be soothed, no want without... shame... I wasn't myself anymore - if I ever had been the past year.
I don't know myself, I thought. So much had happened that year it had completely thrown me off course in life. I was far from being the Helena Kyle I had been before my mother bled to death in my arms and what ever happened I knew I would never be her again.
Standing on the rooftops I realized it was an hour ago since I got off work and I hadn't seen a criminal activity since. That was odd. Usually there was always something going on in that part of town. I decided to take another sweep around the rooftops and as I did I noticed something curious at an abandoned area close to Arkam Asylum. A soft light flickered in one of the deserted storehouses and then went out. When I came closer I realized the windows were blocked with dark fabric. Something was going on inside.
Fences and steel wires blocked off the area around the warehouse. Large signs displayed read: Keep off! Private property! Trespasses are charged or reported to the police! Warning - dangerous ground!
I was just about to trespass as I heard a strange, clicking sound behind me and swirled around. A metal robot the height of my chest stood watching me a few steps away. It reminded me of that small, white robot in Star Wars, with one blinking eye on a head that kept swirling about. This one had two legs, though, and it pointed some kind of gadget at me with arms and hands quite functional to beat in the head on anyone.
"Shit!"
I threw myself to one side as the gadget begun blinking and in the next moment a light-beam flashed above my head.
"What the...?"
Two more robots popped out from the shadows as if from nowhere and begun shooting at me. I dodged the fire and tried getting closer to them, but they were quick as weasels and only became more by the minute. I jumped about and managed to kick one of them, but the impact threw me harder out of the way than the robot was affected. When I came to my feet and looked about there was about sixteen of those creeps.
"Shit!" I muttered. "Alright - what about...?"
"Need a hand?"
One of the robots toppled over while Batgirl clubbed it with an axe straight in its flat head.
"Not really", I said nonchalantly.
"Oh, right. Well, then I should be on my way again." She leaned the axe on her shoulder, grinning at me. "Um..." she added, less happily, and glanced at something behind my back. I instinctively ducked and she followed my example. We remained crouching as laser-beams flashed above our heads. Luckily the robots didn't seem able to aim very thoroughly.
"What are you doing carrying around an axe?" I asked, looking at the blade between us.
"I noticed your quite brave but failed attempt at kicking one of these sardine-cans and looked around for a better weapon. Lo and behold - I found a fire axe in one of the other buildings."
"Lo and behold? You've definitely spent too much time with that teacher."
She gave me a feigned injured look as we parted and then spend some time trying to make the robots fall over by kicking at their legs.
"He'd be insulted if you called him a teacher - he's a guidance counselor. Blame Alfred for my old English if you like."
"The thought would never occur to me to blame that sweet old man for your shortcomings."
"Ups!"
I caught her as she was hit squarely in her stomach by a punch from one of the robots and flew through the air towards me. I straightened her, looking into her green eyes with an arched eyebrow.
"Um, thanks, I guess", she said and I snorted.
"It really kills you being nice to me, doesn't it? What did I do to you in a past life?"
"You probably were a shark and ate me as I so innocently swum by the shore."
"Sure", I said sarcastically. "There's nothing innocent about... Shit", I exclaimed as I looked around and became aware that we were surrounded.
"This doesn't look good", she admitted.
"Any ideas?"
"Actually, yes..." She dropped the axe and pulled her two batons, putting them together and created the long staff by the clicking sound. "Right. I count on your strength now", she said and gave me her arm. "Swing me."
I blinked, but grabbed her arm. "Are you sure?"
"We'll be dead in exactly ten seconds if you don't do..."
I pulled and swung her hard in the air. As I swung her around in a circle she kicked at and used her staff to topple the robots over by aiming at their weak point: their legs. Some of them fell backwards and created an opening for us. I grabbed her by her arm and pulled her close to me, held on to her for a second to steady her and then we run. I glanced at one of the fallen robots as we passed and noticed a strange logo at the base of its neck. It looked like a black cobra.
"I don't like abandoning a fight", I said as I jumped pass the robot and followed Batgirl into the shadows.
"Retreat is not defeat", she said. "We'll fight more evenly the next time."
I looked over my shoulder and noticed the robots following us. They were surprisingly agile. "They are coming after us."
"Here." Batgirl stopped and uncovered her motorbike from a dark tarpaulin. She handed me one of her helmets as she put the other on her head. "Come on."
I wasn't slow to follow and sat behind her with my arms encircling her waist. She kicked the bike running as the robots drew closer.
"Um, I don't want to stress you, but..." I said, glancing over my shoulder. "They're aiming at us again.
She glanced in her mirror and noticed the robots lining up, aiming their laser beams at us.
"Count for me", she said.
"One..." I said, feeling my heart beat close to her body. "Two... three... four..."
She speeded as I counted and we went through the alleyway in the shortest imaginable time.
"Nine... ten..."
On ten she turned around the corner and in the next instant a bluish hell broke out in the alley behind us. I noticed her grinning at me in the side-mirror of her bike.
"If I'd known you were this fun to hang out with I'd contacted you long ago", she said. I didn't know what to respond to that, so I didn't.
"What the hell were they?"
"I don't know", she admitted with a frown, keeping her eyes at the road again.
"How did you find me?" I asked, belatedly.
"The transmitter Dinah gave you. It has a receiver I can track on a very wide range. I was already looking for you when I suddenly heard you in my intercom. You must have triggered the microphone by chance. I tried calling you, but your phone was off. You could have used the intercom to contact us."
"Um, I forgot..." I admitted. I wasn't used to having people on the other end of a wire. People that were suppose to help me fight, even.
"I figured", she said dryly.
"Um, thanks..." I said almost shyly, not used to having to thank people either. She grinned at me.
"That wasn't that hard, was it?"
"You're incorrigible", I stated and she chuckled. I felt the ripples of her laughter through her body and blushed. I realized I held on harder than I needed to and loosened the grasp around her waist.
"We're fine, Dinah", I heard her say through the helmet and realized Dinah was on the other end. "Call back Nightwing, will you? We need to talk."
"She's up late", I remarked as Batgirl silenced.
"Yeah. She has some field-study tomorrow and begins later in the day."
The thought of Dinah still followed me as we drove in the tunnel and as Batgirl parked the bike.
"Dinah..." I said somewhat hesitantly as we moved towards the elevator.
"Yes?"
She still wore her mask and I wasn't sure what kind of behavior to expect from her.
"What happened to her mother's killer? Did she ever want to get revenge for what happened?"
Batgirl was quiet as we entered the elevator and rode upstairs through the Clocktower. "He was a local gangster", she finally said. "Black Canary fought his syndicate and pulled down every last one of them. Finally there were only the two of them left and what he did... He followed her and found out where she lived. He then broke into her home and threatened Dinah, but Dinah's powers had begun to make themselves known at that time and she wasn't as defenseless as he believed. Anyhow..." She hesitated. "Black Canary and the man fought, but he had hid a bomb in the building. Black Canary had to let him go to save the rest of the people in the building. She died in the flames saving a young mother and her newly born. Dinah was witness."
"God", I mumbled, closing my eyes. Batgirl's voice was void of emotions, but I realized she was struggling with the pain the memory brought to her.
"The gangster was later caught and arrested - by his own son, actually. A good man, his son, one of the most honest cops I know of. It's strange how family can be so different. Anyhow, the guy was convicted. Dinah's testimony was the one putting him behind bars. He died in prison in some internal conflict between criminals."
I nodded. "And Dinah?"
"She fully blamed the man, but she also got a chance to make justice. She saw justice be done and I think it was important to her to be a part of that procedure. Some thought she was too young to testify, but..."
"You allowed it", I said quietly.
"I did. She has a very strong belief in the juridical system of this town and I think it has to do with what happened. She want's to become either a lawyer as Dick or a police, like the man who caught her mother's murderer."
"He caught his own father to make justice. I wonder what that cost him?" I mumbled. She heard me and glanced at me, but I couldn't make out what she was thinking.
"Remember the guy I was talking about setting you up with? This is him."
"I cop?" I asked, arching an eyebrow at her. She grinned.
"Oh - you'd love him. A real man, he is. And he's a detective."
"Save yourself the trouble", I said and noticed her smirking.
"I think someone has relationships issues", she teased.
"Don't you start", I warned her. She was about to say something when the doors opened and we noticed Dinah's worried face.
"Thank God you're both alright."
"We're fine, girl", Batgirl said and removed her mask.
"Well, you wouldn't have been if you hadn't managed to get out of that alley in time. Those R2:s made a fine mess of it." Dinah looked inquiringly at us.
"We're fine", I said, smiling at her. "Your earring suits me - I think I'll keep it."
"Hey - don't you dare", she said, smiling back. "I'm very attached to those. It's only a loan."
"Do you know anything about those robots, Oracle?" Dick asked from the desk, turning around to face Barbara as she approached Delphi.
She shook her head. "Haven't seen anything like them before. I wonder what they were doing over there, anyway." She leaned closer beside Dick and watched one of the smaller screens further down. Dick leaned in beside her, shoulder to shoulder with her.
"They're gone now", he said. "There was some disturbance at the screen and when the picture was clear again they were gone. Just as when they turned up."
"I think they came from the warehouse", I said, stepping closer to the desk. Dinah followed me. Dick turned his head to look at me.
"Did you see anything?"
"I noticed a light in one of the windows - that's why I wanted to take a closer look. The windows were painted black, or covered by something."
"The robots must guard something in there", Dinah remarked and Barbara nodded thoughtfully.
"Maybe we should call the police?" I suggested. "Robots just can't go around shooting people down like that."
"This is Gotham, remember?" Dick said with a grimace. "And especially Old Gotham. Not many are interested in what's going on in the older parts of town."
"Beside - it's better we know what's going on first." Barbara frowned, straightening her back, but still looking at the screen. "If we have the police storm the building without us knowing what to expect a lot of lives might be lost. I wonder if those guys wore cameras?" she added lowly, mostly to her self.
"I noticed a logo on them", I said, remembering. "It was a black cobra..."
"Are you sure?" Dick asked sharply and Barbara turned to look at me.
I nodded. "Definitely."
"Cobra Enterprise", Dick said, exchanging a glance with Barbara.
Barbara nodded. "Boyd", she said as she begun pacing the floor with a pensive frown. "He reported some material to be stolen from his company some time ago. He was very secretive about it and refused to share what it was about. He referred to the risk of espionage and didn't want to disclose more than it concerned his space project."
"Who is this Boyd?" I asked as Dick said:
"You don't believe it was stolen?"
"I never did." Barbara glanced at me. "This is a bit complicated", she said.
"It always is", I said with a shrug and Dinah nodded.
"Yeah", she said, "but this really is. It has to do with Business-Barbara and you so-o don't want to go there."
"In short..." Barbara frowned again, finding the words. "Cobra Enterprise is run by Michael Boyd, a ruthless, coldhearted business man. Without his knowledge I bought a large amount of shares in his company..."
"Why?" I asked with a frown. "If you don't like him, why support him?"
"It's not for support", Dick said. "It's the opposite."
"It's possible to buy shares in a company and be anonymous", Barbara explained. "That's what I did. I got enough shares to vote against suggestions that are immoral..."
"Like arms export and import", Dick added, looking at me. I nodded, remembering the exchange at Barbara's office. Business-Barbara, as Dinah had put it.
"Officially I'm still unknown to Boyd - my wishes and objections are presented by a representative, keeping my name off the board. Unofficially I've begun to suspect Boyd knows I'm trying to control his company."
"Um..." I said. "So he wants to get even with you by creating happily shooting robots?"
"No", Barbara said with a slight smile. "He wants to get even by suing me for breach of contract."
"Ouch!" I said - I had forgotten about that. "Right. But where does the robots fit in?"
"Depending..." Barbara turned around pointing at the screen and the dark warehouse we just managed to escape from. The picture was blurry and not very clear. "See this area? It's owned by B&B Industries..."
"The B&B representing 'Blackbird'", Dick added in a dry voice. I recognized the name, but I failed to see the connection. I remembered Dinah had talked about a black bird in relation to the ninjas.
"So?"
"I told you it's complicated", Dinah pointed out with a sigh. I looked questioningly at her.
"B&B Industries is a subsidiary company to Blackbird Cooperation", Barbara explained.
"And?" I still failed to see the connection to the white steel-robots attacking me for no good reason. Well, if functioning as guard-dogs they probably thought they had good reason - but it didn't excuse the fact that they wanted to shoot my head off. Or blast me into oblivion, more like it.
"Blackbird Cooperation was started as a small company three years ago. By that time it was called Patchwork Consultation."
"Patchwork? That's a strange name for a computer firm, isn't it?"
"Well, it's not technically a computer firm today", Barbara explained. "They deal with a whole lot of technology. But what kind of business they ran at that time was quite obscure. They were trademarked as a small, local company in east of Gotham - Old Gotham. It's difficult to tell what they actually did to keep the company together, but I've begun to suspect they spend their time bribing people and extorting blackmail. Your father came across the name a few times, but he couldn't pin anything to them. Anyway, it wasn't until the company changed name and moved to New Gotham that we begun suspecting there was more to it. Suddenly it had become this wealthy organization with tendrils to a lot of companies in town. Lesser companies were bought by Blackbird Cooperation and the company grew larger. It's one of the wealthiest companies in this town today."
I nodded, still waiting for her to get to the point.
"Patchwork Consultation changed name almost twelve months ago, at the same time the rate of high-technology crimes increased in New Gotham."
I frowned, remembering Dick and Dinah mentioning an organized crime syndicate. "You think the owner of Blackbird is the new Big Boss of the bad-asses in Gotham?" I asked. "Who is he?"
She nodded. "That's exactly what I think - and... I would be a much happier woman if I knew who owns Blackbirds."
"You mean you don't know?"
"No. He uses representatives at all meetings and invitations. I've grown to suspect he's a meta-human."
"Any proofs?" I asked with a frown. "Can you pin anything to Blackbird?"
"No, it's all hunches."
"Great."
"Exactly", Dick agreed with a grimace.
"But... How's this connected to the robots?"
Barbara arched an eyebrow. "Didn't I mention? Cobra Enterprise has a close connection to Blackbird. They are business-partners on the way to merge."
"So... You think this Cobra-guy sold his robots to Blackbird and then reported them stolen?"
"That's exactly my thought. Maybe it's not the robots in themselves, but spare-parts... Which still brings us to the question - what's so valuable in that warehouse it needs protection so badly?"
"Right", I said. "Any suggestions? I've run out of technology-based ideas."
Dick grinned. "Did you ever have any?"
"Don't insult my intellect", I stated. "I went to University..."
"Learning how to place a painting on the right wall hardly qualifies", he objected.
"How did you...?" I glanced at Barbara. "Did you write a book about my fucking life and shared it with the world, or what?"
"Don't blame it on me - I'm a control freak." She shrugged. "What can I say?"
"Right", I grumbled.
"Dinah - bedtime."
The girl sighed. "Right when it was becoming interesting."
"Interesting? Company-merging and no clues to the most organized syndicate in Gotham?" I said. "It won't get more interesting than this tonight."
"Great - I got two mothers, suddenly", Dinah sighed and I blinked. Mothers? What the...?
"She's right, though, pigeon", Dick said. "We're stuck. It's all about research now."
"We'll check out the place tomorrow", Barbara added. "Don't worry. You'll be in on it."
Dinah still grumbled as she went to the elevator.
"Go on, Ladyhawk", I said. "We'll have some fun tomorrow."
She turned to look at me with a surprised glance. Then she smiled broadly, lightening the whole room. "Thank you", she said happily. "That's way cooler than 'pigeon.'" She grinned at me and skipped the last steps to the elevator, waving at me before the doors closed between us. I grinned, seeing her happy face and knowing I'd done something to make her delighted.
"She'll adore you for life", Barbara told me, standing by my side. I felt her presence: calm, but intense.
"I can live with that", I said. I paused and then added: "Any news from Arkam?" The news hadn't said much about the outcome of the fight last night. Neither the police nor the guards at Arkam Asylum had wanted to comment on the event.
Barbara nodded. "Twelve convicts are dead and two escaped. It will be on the news tomorrow."
"Who escaped?" I asked, wondering if it would be anyone that I knew of.
"Remember the water-guy? That one... and Clayface."
I instantly turned towards her, hearing and remembering the name. "Clayface?"
"The one and the same", she said, nodding. I studied her, but couldn't see any reaction indicating she felt anything about the news. Maybe she had had time to get use to the thought that a man who almost killed her seven years ago and had sworn revenge now was on the loose. Or maybe she just was so used to the idea of chasing bad guys and being threatened by them that she really didn't bother.
"We were lucky, though", Dick interfered. "If Oracle hadn't noticed something strange going on in the area around Arkam the loss would have been greater. Who knows how many would have managed to escape in that case?"
"You don't think they will try again?" I asked Barbara, but she shook her head.
"Not yet, in any case. Surveillance is even higher than before now and I've got trustworthy technicians to work at their electronic. Next time a power-failure won't be as easy to arrange." She frowned. "I'm going to do some work at the computer. There're some things I need to sort out about..." The rest of her words were lost in a soft mumble as her eyes turned focused on the screens. She went to the desk and sat down, seemingly forgetting about Dick and me. I exchanged an amused glance with him.
"Come on", he said, waving at me. "Let's do another sweep of the town. I'll show you my favorite spots in the dark."
I grinned, following him.
Part Five
Around noon the next day I found Barbara in the kitchen as I came down for a late breakfast. She was sitting at the table, going through some papers. She didn't notice me and I stood watching her as she worked. She was dressed in a cool-looking skirt in a soft yellow color and a white blouse flecked with flowers. She seemed relaxed and looked so sweet and innocent this way, like that girl I had seen throwing colored balls in the park the other day. I would remember that thought later the same day, when we would find her - hating the ones that bruised her and stained her innocence with blood.
"I know you're there", she said with an amused smile, without raising her eyes towards me.
Damn, I thought, good-humored, and went to the table.
"There's food in the fridge." She pointed in the direction of the fridge with her pen without turning her head. "Alfred made breakfast for you before he left."
"Did he? He's sweet. Left where?" I added as I opened the fridge-door and found a tray with food. I pulled it out and sat down at the table. Barbara finally looked up, but seemed more interested in my food than anything else. "Want some?" I offered.
She shook her head, but her eyes told a different story. She glanced at me and noticed me grinning.
"Wade's taking me for lunch", she said, smiling back. "I left him quite rudely yesterday and have some making up to do. Don't say it!" she added with a warning as she saw me opening my mouth. I closed it and grinned triumphantly. "Alfred's at the manor, by the way. He looks after it and shows the tourists around sometimes."
"Tourists?" I asked.
"Mmhm." Barbara quickly stole a piece of peeled apple from the tray and put it in her mouth, chewing. "Since no one is really living there anymore we thought it a waste to have it just standing there like some kind of gigantic dinosaur. Every now and then we let tourists take a... tour. For only a symbolic sum, of course."
"Of course", I said.
"I think he enjoys playing the proper British butler. There's a drama-streak in him you wouldn't notice if you don't know him." She made a face and I laughed. "You know", she added more seriously. "Bruce's money are your money. Anytime you want..."
"No", I said immediately. I had made up my mind about that already. "I don't want anything from him."
She watched me closely, but then shrugged. "It's your choice. Just let me know if you change your mind."
I shook my head. I won't, I thought.
I ate some while she worked, reading through her papers.
"What's that?" I finally asked and nodded towards her briefcase.
"Boring", she said with a sigh and stretched, rolling her neck and shoulders. She gathered her papers and put them in the briefcase. "Stuff for the Bruce Wayne concern. Nothing fun to talk about." She put the briefcase away and looked at me, almost expectantly. "So - what you think about this place?"
"This place?" I hated direct questions and always tried to avoid them. I looked around, chewing. "Nice", I said. "Cool."
"Never figured you for a woman of few words", she said sarcastically. I made a face at her.
"I like it. What else is there to say?" I looked her in the eye, challenging her. That was a mistake, I realized as she smiled.
"So - what about what this place symbolizes? You like that? You like Nightwing and Dinah?" She tilted her head to one side, never letting go of my eyes. "Me?"
I swallowed. "I don't think I would be here if I didn't", I said, holding her gaze. We looked at each other and I felt this tingle along my back as her eyes scanned my face, my eyes - searching deep in my soul for secrets I didn't know I carried. "I..." I cleared my thought. "I still don't get it that Gibson would betray me", I said, not able to comprehend that he had revealed to Dinah what we had talked about. "What did he say I'd said?"
"Oh, Gibson is a gentleman", Barbara said, smiling and leaning back in her chair. I relaxed as her gaze shifted slightly and let go of its hold on me. "He only told her what he told you about her, nothing about what you asked him."
I remembered what Gibson had said about Batgirl. Not a meta-human and not welcome... "You never met him?"
"Only once. He knows who I am. He figured it out - it has something to do with his incredible memory. He's not fond of... my nightly businesses, but I trust him fully when it comes to Dinah. He's a bit weird, I give you that, but he is a good man and he'd give all his limbs for that girl."
"Don't say things like that", I said, immediately picturing an arm-less and leg-less Gibson serving drinks at the bar. "You're not accepted at the bar, are you?" I added, looking at her.
She shook her head. "It's the one thing I can't share with Dinah", she said, sounding remorseful. "It might be good for her, though - I don't know."
"You're not meta. You can never know what it's like", I said, realizing something when I noticed the sadness in her eyes. "But you're not fully human either." I held her gaze, but she only shrugged and looked away, shielding herself. "You don't belong in any world", I continued, not able to stop. "Just like my father." The thought pulled at something in me, making me sad. "It must be... difficult."
She looked almost surprised at me, but didn't deny it. She nodded slightly, admitting I was right.
"That's why you've chosen Wade", I said abruptly. Her head snapped back and she looked at me with a warning glance.
"Don't go there", she said. "It's enough I have Dick and Dinah at me..."
"Ever considered the idea that they are right?" I challenged, finally finding something that broke through the slippery wall she surrounded herself with. She snorted.
"It's none others business than mine", she said.
"They care about you. Doesn't it make it their business?" I persisted. "Why are you with him?" I asked her frankly. She looked me straight in the eyes.
"I love him", she said simply and it caught me for a second.
"I've no doubt you do", I said, surprising myself. "But what's the reason behind the love? Could you love someone else more? Could you love someone else in another way - more passionate? Why do you stick with Wade? You could have anyone."
"I don't want anyone", she said conclusively and rose. "Wade's what I want."
"I don't believe you", I said, shaking my head. "You said it yourself - you need control. What are you afraid of anyway?"
She disdainfully looked down at me with a snort.
"And what do you know? Who made you an expert at me all of a sudden? You can't even have a relationship, so wrapped up in your own anger. You don't trust anyone... You don't even know how to."
"Right." I rose, feeling inferior while sitting down. "You know - you might know my father, but you don't know shit about me..."
"And you don't give me a chance to", she countered and I blinked. "You're so damn closed off..."
�I'm the one closed off? You're the fucking schizophrenic! Do you even know who the hell you are in there? Trying to save the fucking world - as if it deserves it! As if the fucking world even cares! Try to live a normal, happy life for once - if you know what that is like."
"And what do you think I'm trying to do with Wade?" she said bitingly.
"He's safe..." I realized. "You're fucking hiding - playing another fucking role!" I didn't know why the thought of her having to compromise with her life made me so mad, but to think that she would marry that man... I knew it in my bones that she wasn't meant to spend the rest of her life with him.
"And what do you care?" she snapped, loosing her temper for the first time. Her eyes flashed. "Maybe Dinah and Dick has a point, but you do not know me and you don't care. The only reason to why you are here is because you think I can give you what you want. Well, think again - Huntress" - she spit it out, like it was some kind of bitter fruit - "I'll give you what you want regardless if you stay or not. You can leave, if that's what you want."
"Are you kicking me out?" I asked incredulous.
"No", she looked at me and shouldered her bag. "I'm giving you what you want - a way out."
"Is that what you think I fucking want?" I almost shouted at her as she walked towards the elevator.
"You haven't given me a reason to think differently", she said coolly.
"Are you walking away from me?" I snapped at her back, following her. "Don't you fucking walk away from me when I'm talking to you. You do it all the time!"
The elevator doors opened.
"I'm not walking away from you, but from this argument", she said and stepped into the elevator. "I don't have the time or the energy for this."
"Don't you fucking psycho-analyze this!"
She turned to look at me. "Grow up, Helena", she said as the doors begun to close.
"Fuck you!" I shouted at her as the doors closed.
Part Six
Damn! I thought as I made my way to the caf� were I was meeting Wade. Damn her! Who does she think she is? She had no right questioning my life like that - attacking my choices.
"Hi", Wade said as I found him by our regular table at the outer terrace of Laura's Diner, close to the sidewalk. He kissed me on the cheek and I let him. He looked strangely at me. "You alright?"
"No", I said and surprised us both. I sat down, waving at Laura behind the counter beyond the open doors to the diner with a forced smile. "Damn! That woman..."
"What woman?" Wade said as he slowly sat down by my side. He'd been thoughtful enough to order a coffee for me and I drank, swallowing despite the fact that I burned my tongue. Shit! I thought and put down the cup.
"This woman... that I met. No, she's working for me... kind of... Anyway - she..." I took a deep breath, realizing Wade's strange look stemmed from the fact that he'd never seen me this agitated before. Damn her - making me lose my composure like this. It hadn't happened since... I couldn't remember it ever happening. Helena Kyle definitely had an affect on me. I didn't think she was very fond of me to begin with - she was always so silent in my company. Even though she didn't seem to like Batgirl much either at least she interacted with her.
"Sorry", I said to Wade as I reach over and took his hand in mine. "I didn't mean to unload my burdens on you."
"That's part of what I'm here for", he said and let me kiss his cheek. "In a relationship you share burdens."
This was an old conversation about my habit of keeping secrets from him and I didn't want to go there. The thought of Helena interrupted.
"She just... does something to me." I just couldn't keep from taunting her when I was Batgirl and she Huntress - it was like this... electrifying charge between us. Beside - she's so damn sexy when she grins... Sexy? God, did I just think that?
"Some people does that. We can't get along with everyone", Wade said soothingly.
"But that's it - I thought we were getting along just fine. And then... bang! She attacked me for no reason."
He looked at me and smiled in a way that revealed he found my outburst arousing. Not surprisingly he leaned in and kissed me.
"Mmm, too bad you have that meeting right now", he whispered. "There's something else I could think of doing..."
"Bad boy", I muttered amused. "Don't you have students to consider?"
"Oh, heavy duty", he sighed.
"Hey, Barbara", Laura greeted me with her pad and pen in hand. I looked up at her with a more genuine smile this time.
"Hi. Mmm, the usual, please."
"Coming up", the short, dark woman said and put the pen behind her ear. "A Caesar salad, dark bread on the side and carrot juice."
"Add an carrot-cake this time", I added. "I feel I deserve to be spoiled today."
"Sure. At least you can afford it." Laura smiled and patted her belly. "Three kids later and this is what you get."
"You look just fine to me, Laura", Wade said and winked at her. She laughed, swathing at him with her pad.
"You're a teaser, Mr. Brixton."
When Laura left I put away my cup of coffee, not bothering with finishing it. I rarely drank coffee, but somehow this always slipped Wade's mind when we went to Laura's. I preferred tea - courtesy of Alfred.
"So - what was the big emergency yesterday?" Wade asked. "I... missed you."
"I know", I said distractedly and tried to sound apologetic. He looked at me with this shy and almost timid look I'd found quite cute in the beginning of our acquaintance, but which I found a bit annoying at that moment. He was a gentle man and before that day I'd never found a fault with him. I loved him for his gentleness and the way he treated me with care. I reminded myself that he wasn't weak or meek in any way, but had spirit when it was needed and that was the combination I liked about him. Safe? I thought with an inward snort. She doesn't not what she's talking about. Damn - I was thinking about her again. "Um, there was this... break in... Yeah, that's it. There was this break in at my company."
"Oh! I hope it wasn't serious?"
"Oh, no. It turned out to be false alarm, but with what happened at Arkam the other day..."
"Yes", he said with a worried frown. "That was scary."
Tell me about it, I thought and then repressed a smile at the recollection of my fight side by side with Huntress. Jeez - she knows how to fight, that woman! What reflexes - and strength... I almost laughed out loud as I remembered her grin when she retorted to my remark: "Sure - I should let you take me out more often!"
I wouldn't know that feeling again, I realized with sudden regret as I remembered our quarrel.
"Why couldn't she just let it go?" I complained and Wade looked at me as if I'd sprouted a double set of ears.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, sorry - I just can't seem to let it go."
"What did you fight about?" he said, realizing I needed to talk about this if not even the event at Arkam could prevent me from obsessing about it.
"Um..." You, I thought, but that wasn't the whole truth. "I... don't really know", I said, frowning. "Suddenly we were just involved in this huge argument. But that's not the point", I said, shaking my head. "The point is she's obnoxious and arrogant and..."
"You're the perfect woman?" he asked amused. I caught myself with a sigh.
"I guess not. I know I have my... problems..."
"Mmhm", he said looking pointedly at me. I frowned.
"Do you think I have a relationship-problem?" I asked and when I saw the guarded look in his eyes I realized that I'd hit too close to the mark for him to be comfortable with this conversation.
"Um, you know I find you perfectly... perfect", he said.
"Wade", I persisted and he sighed.
"You do seem to have some... uh, issues..."
"Great!" I threw out my arms. "Just take her side, will you!"
"That's not..." he begun and then noticed I wasn't angry, only ironical, and smiled. "I don't even know the woman", he added with an amused smile.
"No - and you better not get a chance to. I won't have the two of you discussing my 'bonding issues'." I frowned, being serious again. "Do you think me cold, Wade?"
"No! Absolutely not!" he said. "You're warm and passionate and..." He blushed. "Well, you know... everything. It's just... sometimes there seems to be this... wall around you I can't breach. You become distant and... lost, somehow. I'm afraid sometimes that I don't really know you."
Secrets, I thought. That's what keeping secrets do to you. I nodded. Right - so she might not have been that wrong after all. I might be a difficult person to get to know, but she... "She's just so damn..." I caught myself, looking at Wade. "Sorry - you are right." I nodded. "I... You know, it's the responsibilities. Don't take it personally, Wade. It's just who I am and who I need to be in order to keep things together."
He nodded. "I know. I didn't mean to mention it, but since you brought it up..."
I leaned in to kiss him. He was so sweet. Right - maybe he wasn't as straightforward as I would prefer or as confident as I would like, but he was a good man. I smiled at the thought and leaned backwards in my chair as Laura brought our food.
At the same time Laura placed the plates at the table and leaned back with a smile to say something a black van suddenly speeded up at the sidewalk, toppling cones and fences along the way. Pedestrians were forced to hurl themselves to the sides to avoid being crushed by the large wheels. Even before the van stopped the doors were thrown open and four men in black clothes and masks with guns in their hands jumped out, aiming the guns at innocent bystanders and at guests at the caf�.
"Barbara Gordon!" one of them yelled as he pulled a young girl Dinah's age to him and aimed the gun at her head. "Come with us and none will be harmed."
I rose immediately.
"Barbara..." Wade gasped and rose, trying to catch my wrist. I quickly stepped aside to avoid Wade and moved towards the van. I halted out of reach from the men, looking the man who held the girl captured straight in the eye.
"Let her go. I give you my word I will follow you", I said. "But if you harm anyone I won't come."
He looked at me and nodded, releasing the girl. She disappeared behind the van with a sob.
"Barbara!" Wade shouted with fear in his voice as I stepped towards the van. Two of the men caught me and brought me to the car. I turned my head to look at him.
"Call Dick", I said calmly, before I was pushed inside the van and the doors closed behind me. Someone hit me in the head and everything went dark.
When I woke up I was tied to a chair so thoroughly I couldn't move a finger, with a gag in my mouth. It seemed to be dark around me - only a faint light lit the area where I was placed.
"Time to wakie, wakie", someone - a man - said in an annoyingly light voice. I tried to lift my head, but it hurt too much. I made a soft, involuntary sound. Someone grabbed my hair and pulled my head backwards and I closed my eyes as the pain surged through me.
"She's back", another man said and I heard someone move close to me.
I grunted as a blow landed in my face and split my lip.
"Boyd", I mumbled and slowly opened my eyes. Michael Boyd - a tall, dark figure with eyes like amber looked at me with an amused smile.
"Good guess, Miss Gordon - I'm impressed."
"No guess", I mumbled beneath the gag, hardly audible. Boyd reached forward and removed the gag. "No guess", I repeated bitingly, looking him in the eye. "Recognized your stench. You stink like skunk."
He hit me again, harder this time, and my head rung.
"You are in no position to insult me", he said angrily.
I tried to look around for the second person, but couldn't tell one shadow from another.
"I'm here", someone hissed in the same light, impersonal voice as before. "You can not see me", the voice added in a singsong tone, as if a child was going: nah, nah, nah-nah-nah...
Boyd looked annoyingly at someone behind my back.
"What do you want with me?" I asked calmly, looking at Boyd. I knew he wouldn't let me live - not after letting me see his face. He smiled down at me - it was a cold, ruthless smile.
"Oh - not much. Only trying to convince you to sell me your company."
"That will never happen", I told him and he grinned.
"I didn't think so, but the fun part will be to convince you." He hit me again, even harder and my head snapped back. Someone fingered my hair, whispering something in my ear.
"I know you", the singsong voice said. "I know you, know you, know you..."
"Stop that", Boyd said irritably. I couldn't see his face from my position, having my head bent back. The man whispering in my ear pulled in my hair.
"I know who you are..." he whispered before letting go of my hair and I raised my head again, looking at Boyd.
"Where did you find this guy?" I asked scornfully. "At Arkam, maybe?"
"Arkam?" Boyd raised an eyebrow. "You think I had something to do with that?" He laughed hollowly. "Hardly. I'm not... that defiled." He grimaced and looked at the man behind my back, a glance telling me what I needed to know. The man behind my back was the real threat, although Boyd didn't seem to think so.
"I know her, I know her - I know who she is... You don't, you don't..."
"Shut up or get the hell out of here", Boyd snapped. "I'm tired of listening to your insanity."
Something with the mans singsong voice triggered a memory within me; I found it slightly familiar, but couldn't place it. At the same time Boyd hit me again and the pain prevented further proper thoughts for a couple of heartbeats.
Damn, that hurt! I thought, fighting the dizziness threatening to claim me.
"They'll find me", I said, hearing my voice ring like a far away echo within me.
"Oh, yes - they will. I'll see to that", Boyd said victoriously. "But there will be no leads to me. You bitch!" He hit me twice more in the face. "You convinced them to sell to you. That meeting tomorrow morning... You'll buy me out!"
"That was the idea", I said, thinking of the last thing I had done before leaving work the day before. I had contacted the two most powerful shareholders of Cobra Enterprise and let them know I was the one interested in buying Boyd's business. I made them each an offer they couldn't refuse and we set a date two days ahead to go ahead with the transaction. With their shares I would have had complete control of the company and Boyd would have been forced to sell if he didn't want me as boss. "Who was it?" I asked through the pain, trying to focus on him. "Who told you?"
"They didn't", he sneered. "I was listening in on the conversation."
That was good. At least I hadn't been betrayed.
"Now... I'm... going... to... enjoy... this."
By every word he uttered he beat me one more time: in my face, in my stomach or other places at my body. I tried breaking free, but the chains that tied me held me too tight. I tightened my muscles and received the blows as I had learned over the years, being Batgirl.
"He doesn't know what I know", the other man sang in the background. "He's gonna kill you, kill you, kill you..."
"Someone... My shares, my money... It will go to my friends", I said. "They'll fight you."
"Oh, they'll try, but you, my dear..." Boyd grinned. "You are the real threat. Without you... you're group of friends will be like - a snake without a head."
"Fun pun", I said, considering his logo of a cobra.
"I thought so." He laughed at his own joke. "Except - with you gone... The head of the Cobra will rise!" His eyes gleamed. "Gordon Technologies will be mine!" He paused and looked down at me, before leaning forward and resting his palms at the arms of my chair - looking me straight in the eyes. "Why are you not afraid?" he asked after a moment. "You know I've done this before?"
"I figured as much", I said. "Someone like you must have a real psychopathic spare time occupation."
He spit in my face and I smiled.
"That hurt", I said, never breaking eye contact with him. He straightened his back.
"I'm gonna beat you to death", he said. "I'm gonna feel your blood on my hands. I'm gone own you..."
"You're sick", I spat, but he laughed.
"Ever killed someone?" he asked smoothly, with a glossy sheen in his amber eyes. I stiffened and the voice behind me chuckled.
"A girl like her? A lady - a hummingbird? Killed someone? Did you, girlie, girlie? Did you ever kill someone?"
And suddenly I knew who he was. He was the one I had been waiting for, for seven years. The chill creeping up my back was mingled with excitement and fear - and guilt.
"Hardly likely", Boyd said, again annoyed at the interruption. He seemed to lose his focus.
"Hardly likely", the voice echoed. "Hardly likely..."
"Shut up!" Boyd snapped and the voice did, but I heard it chuckle in the background. Boyd looked at me with hard eyes. "I'm gonna beat you to death and I'm gonna enjoy every minute of it."
I didn't doubt him. I closed my eyes for a brief second, hoping Dinah and Dick had been sensible enough to check in with Delphi. They would be able to track the signal from the ring I was wearing. I had triggered the alarm as soon as I stepped towards the van, before the men knocked me unconscious. Helena, I thought, but I doubted she would be around. She was probably far away by now and I would never see her again. The thought made me sad.
"Yeah, that's right", Boyd snickered. "Say a prayer, Miss Gordon."
I opened my eyes and looked at him. "You are a pathetic scum, Boyd - did you know that? Killing me won't change the fact that your intellect is the size of a walnut and you have as much guts as a pool of jelly. You're weak and deranged and any sense of power you feel you have is an illusion created by your own warped self. You..."
"Shut up! Shut up!"
The blows landed with strikingly accuracy and rhythm and I was soon lost in the black fog drifting over my mind.
When I woke up I was laying with my head in someone's lap and I felt a soft, damp tissue being pressed to my forehead. I opened my eyes - or more correctly: mine eye, as the other was swollen shut - and looked into Helena's blue eyes.
"You came back", I whispered with sore throat, feeling extremely relieved and happy in a way I couldn't explain when seeing her. She swallowed and nodded, her eyes expressing worry and a tenderness I hadn't seen with her before, nor expected of her. She seemed to have difficulty speaking. I hoped she wasn't injured.
"I'm sorry", she whispered.
"Me too", I said, with difficulty. I didn't know if she heard me, but I thought she did - her hearing was better than most peoples. I moved my hand, but was too tired to lift it. She seemed to know what I wanted and took it in hers. I squeezed her hand and she held me tight, but gently. I closed my eyes and begun slipping away again, into the dark.
"You're safe with me", I heard her whisper.
I know, I thought, wanting to tell her, but I was too tired and in the next moment I was lost again.
I spent two days at the hospital, healing from the damage Boyd had caused me. That was just as long as it took before I found out what had happened that day. When Wade contacted him Dick immediately collected Dinah from school and the two of them returned to the Clocktower. At the Clocktower Dinah found her necklace and the earring Helena had left behind and with no spare time they didn't know how to contact her or where to find her. Luckily Dick was able to track me down using Delphi to locate the signal from my ring. He left the Clocktower as Dinah stayed behind to direct him from Delphi. He had hardly left when Helena showed up - according to Dinah as grim as anything, scaring Dinah half to death. "She had murder on her mind", the girl later told me.
Helena had caught the news by chance on the radio and hurried back to the Clocktower to get in contact with Dinah or Dick. When she noticed the signal on the map at Delphi she immediately realized I was held captive at the warehouse where she and I had been attacked by the robots. She reached it at the same time as Dick, which meant she must have made full use of her meta-abilities. Dinah arrived with the police later on.
There was no fight or anything. The warehouse was completely empty except from Boyd and me. There were no signs of a second man. Huntress and Dick made the matter short with Boyd and Dick told me he thought she was going to kill Boyd in pure anger. I was glad she didn't.
Since her mother died Helena had been on the way of becoming something other than what her mother meant her to be. There was so much anger within her. I knew I couldn't contact her right after her mother's death. She wasn't ready to listen then. I watched her, though. I kept an eye on her, as I had promised Selena I would if something ever happened to her. When I heard the rumors that the wrong crowd begun showing interest in her I made a move. At first I thought I'd been too late. She didn't seem to respond at all, just being this hard, skillful warrior - trusting no one, needing no one. I thought I had failed and would lose her to the wrong side, but that night when she held Shadow in her grasp... She made a choice and I could only hope and pray that choice would still be valid when she one day would face her mother's killer. I didn't want Helena to know what it was like: living with the knowledge of what it was like to take someone's life. It would be a burden and for some it was a burden that was too heavy to bear. It became the extra weight in the scales - that defining moment when everything changed and the road that was sprinkled with starlight would lead only to shadows and darkness.
Boyd had asked me if I knew what it was like - killing someone. He doubted it was likely, but he didn't know me very well. I did, once - killed.
Bruce never killed and I think that was part of the reason why he had to leave after Selena's death: he wanted to, too much. He probably knew that if he did kill he would cross the line forever - not only once - and in the end become... what he fought. Like Darkstrike.
Darkstrike killed the man killing his girlfriend and even though his outer self was the same hero striving to do what was right something twisted within him, turning him... Guilt and hatred turned him into a killer and there was no saving him. When he realized what he'd become he took his own life.
Death only begot more death. I ought to know.
Helena visited me only once at the hospital and seeing her so uncomfortable in the surroundings I forgave her for it. She promised me she would wait at home for me when I was released.
"I don't like hospitals", she told me, which was plain to see. "It reminds me of... death."
Her mother's death, probably.
Wade hardly left my side, but for some strange reason he missed Helena those minutes she was there. I wasn't sure what I should feel about that - one part of me was relieved, as another part of me (Batgirl, most likely) was disappointed. I had wanted to compare them. Which was a ridiculous idea in the first place, but as Wade held my hand and anxiously cared for me I found myself thinking more and more of Helena; the way I had rested my head in her lap, the unexpected gentleness in her eyes and in her touch... Her raw voice as she whispered my name before I drifted off towards darkness. I didn't even know I had picked up on that - only remembering it when I looked into her eyes again at the hospital. She had been standing in the door watching me. I had pretended I didn't notice her, until Dinah showed up behind her and went straight to my bed. Then I looked up and held her gaze. She was plainly uncomfortable, but also looked very young and vulnerable. Despite that she smiled at me and tried to hide her own discomfiture. It was then I remembered my head in her lap and her words.
You're safe with me. Barbara... The last word - my name - had hardly been audible, but the gentleness, the pain, the need in her voice... It had all affected me and stayed with me and that was what I was thinking about when Wade fussed about me: her eyes and her voice whispering my name.
Part Seven
They let her home after two days. Amazingly enough she didn't have any broken ribs or fractured bones, although the injuries were quite extensive as they were. Or maybe it looked worse than it was.
When I arrived with Dick at the warehouse and found her, tied to that chair and bleeding... I almost lost it. All I could think about was my last words to her and I knew that if she'd been dead I would never have forgiven myself. My need to beat this guy Boyd into a bloody pulp was overwhelming, but Dick managed to get through to me, telling me Barbara needed me. As he kept an eye on Boyd I released Barbara from the chair, at the same time as the police arrived.
What happened then was still fuzzy those days after Barbara's return home. The police stormed the building, pointing their guns at everyone as was their habit. Dick wasn't Nightwing at the time and being only Dick Grayson - lawyer - he had to put his hands in the air. This gave Boyd and opportunity to escape. He wouldn't have gotten far, unarmed as he was, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I saw an arm from a ledge far up near the ceiling pointing a gun at him. I shouted a warning - to Boyd? I didn't know; to anyone - but it was too late. Boyd was shot right between the eyes and died instantly.
I had forgotten all about him as Barbara in that same moment opened her eyes, looking at me. Don't leave me, I wanted to say, but couldn't find my voice.
"You came back", she said and I wanted to cry.
"I'm sorry", I said. I needed to say it - nothing else in the whole world mattered more in that split second.
"Me too", she said and I knew I was forgiven.
She returned home on a Friday. We had arranged a small party for her in her house beside the Clocktower - there were loads of people wanting to greet her. Dick and Dinah had asked if she felt up to it and even though we all suspected she was quite tired of the media by now and of strangers she agreed to it. Her house was filled with flowers and gifts from everywhere: from companies and private persons wanting to wish her luck and show their sympathy.
Barbara patiently answered the questions from the press. She took time opening gifts and expressing genuine gratitude at them in live television. She just amazed me, how she was up for it while it was still plainly visible to everyone what she'd been through. Her face was bruised and she wore a patch covering her left eye. She'd been forced to take a few stitches at her lip - it would turn into a tiny scar. And the way her face looked like I didn't want to imagine what her body must look like. That smooth skin, soft and shiny - covering muscles no one could imagine she had just by looking at her... The thought caught me and I blushed. Was I actually imagining another woman's body?
"People just love her, don't they?" Dinah said as a tiny, older woman carefully stepped up to Barbara with tears in her eyes and kissed her on the cheek. I could see Barbara was moved by the gesture; she embraced the old woman and smiled warmly at her when she left.
I nodded. There were no words to describe what I felt. Yes - she annoyed the hell out of me sometimes; she was in constant control and she had as many personalities as any psychotic I knew of, but there was this thing about her... She loved life and she loved people - and somehow she managed to make people believe in what she believed in and to make them fight to make their dreams come through.
"Enough, good people - enough", Dick said, raising his arms in the middle of the large room. "Our heroine needs her rest."
No one grunted or objected, not even the press - they all went their way on his firm, but friendly command. Only Wade stayed at Barbara's side where she was sitting in an armchair in the middle of the saloon - crowded with flowers and gift-wrappings. This was the first time I met Wade in Barbara's company. He seemed nice enough towards her, but I still had a hard time seeing her married to him.
Barbara kept watching Wade and me as we interacted and her steady, sharp look made me so uncomfortable I finally begun avoiding him. I couldn't blame her for keeping an eye at us; after our last, harsh conversation I could have told Wade anything. Not that I would, but I didn't blame her for maybe thinking it.
"You go ahead", I heard Barbara say to Wade. "Dinah and Dick will take good care of me now."
"Are you sure? You know I'll stay..."
"I know." She kissed him softly and I averted my eyes from them. "I know you would", she said. "But not tonight. You've been great support, Wade, but tonight I need... to rest."
I suddenly felt sorry for the guy and glanced at his disappointed expression. Fight, then, I thought almost annoyed as he nodded. Tell her you'll stay, you moron. That's what she really needs you to do if you were just... My thoughts died away in a grumble.
"See you tomorrow then. I love you, Barbara."
"Me too." She kissed him again, lighter this time and I let my eyes linger at them. Her lips touched his in a soft way that fascinated me. I felt a momentarily pang of astonishment as I briefly wondered what it would be like to be kissed by her.
Odd thought, I reflected and let my eyes linger as the kiss ended. Then Dick stepped forward and I averted my eyes, looking around the room.
Dick followed Wade out as Dinah pulled the curtains and tried to make some order amongst the mess in the room. Barbara leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes. I thought she rested, so when Dick returned and I heard her words and the tone of her voice it startled me.
"Any news of the second guy?"
Dinah sat down at her feet, in the middle of a pile of wrappings.
Dick shook his head, staying in the doorway. I knew Alfred was about somewhere, probably in the kitchen cleaning up. "Not a thing. You have any idea who he was?"
"No, nothing. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place him."
Dick leaned on the vault and I stepped closer, needing to be part of the conversation. Neither Dick nor Dinah had asked why I had left the intercom behind nor blamed me for not being in reach, but I felt partly responsible for what had happened to Barbara, even though the thought was absurd. The official version of Boyd's death was that he died while being captured, trying to escape. There was no official version of a second helper at the kidnapping.
"We know he is a good shot", I said. "The shot that killed Boyd came from a great distance and still it hit him straight in the forehead. A master blow." I frowned. "And why was that place empty? What's the use of guarding an empty ground with killer-robots?"
"And where are the robots?" Dinah added.
"It isn't." Barbara looked at me, answering my question. "I suspect it was emptied after our little rendezvous the other night." She glanced at Dinah. "The robots included."
"What do you think went on there?" Dinah asked with a frown.
"Nothing... everything", Barbara said vaguely. "It could have been a lab. It was big enough for it. Remember - what was stolen at Cobra Enterprise might not have been robots, but only parts needing to be put together."
"You know anything?" Dick asked with narrowed eyes as he looked at her. She hesitated.
"I talked to someone who gave me some inside information - I will know more in a few days. I would guess the parts were brought to the warehouse and put together there, and that's why the robots turned up when Helena wanted to take a closer look."
Dick nodded, but I wasn't satisfied.
"And the ninjas?" I asked. "They could have been... created - born" - what was the right term for someone cloned? - "there?"
"Possibly", she said, but she didn't seem convinced.
"But Boyd had nothing to do with the attack at Arkam?"
"No - he told me he didn't and he had no reason to lie. This other guy, though..." Barbara shook her head. "Cobra Enterprise is practically mine now, which will give me an extensive influence in B&B Industrial. This, in turn, gives me an insight to Blackbird Cooperation."
"So? What difference does it make?" I asked, frowning, again confused about her business-talk.
"These companies are extremely careful", Dick explained. "They create policies and laws preventing anyone with no authority from 'digging into' information about them. Any information. People like Boyd would kill anyone spying on his company. Extensive influence, through shares mostly, opens doors previously closed to us. We'll get more information through different sources than before, added to the information we already have..." He made a slight gesture with one of his hands. "More pieces to the jigsaw..."
"Right", I said. "What can I do?"
"If we can't get to the core one way, we'll try another", Barbara said and looked at me. "Ask around town. You got connections and know how to get information. Remember - I have a hunch this guy is meta. He probably won't hang around No Man's Land, but maybe someone knows something about him."
"You think this second guy who... attended your kidnapping is the one that runs Blackbird what-ever?"
"Cooperation." Barbara nodded. "I'm sure of it."
"Right - so, hypothetically, what can we expect from him?"
Barbara seemed to hesitate. She averted her eyes for a brief moment and then looked up, thoughtfully saying: "He would let Boyd do all the hard work. I would expect him to control Boyd somehow without Boyd knowing it. Boyd would be the one in the spotlight - the front-figure everyone would assume was the leader. This would indicate our mystery-guy has an ulterior motive."
"How do you mean?" Dinah asked. I was glad she did - I felt stupid having to ask all the questions.
"Boyd was the archetype of an ordinary bad-guy. He wanted power, fame, wealth... In the end he would have wanted to control the whole of Gotham. That was his ultimate goal. Our mystery guy also wants to control Gotham, but if it was his main goal he would have begun his advances already, maybe by running in the election to become mayor. And - most importantly - he would never have left a man like Boyd in such a central position. Boyd was the one with the power over Gothams Underworld. That was the way Boyd would have ruled - by controlling the criminals of this town. If our mystery man wanted to rule Gotham that way he would have been the one taking control over the criminals."
"It doesn't make sense", Dick said.
"Oh, yes it does", Barbara sighed. "See? His main goal - what drives him and makes him do all of this - is not to control the Underworld, or Gotham's business-world. There're two things here. The first is that what drives him is revenge... He's planned this for years. First he will have his revenge, before he does anything else... Second..." She hesitated. "Maybe it's part of his plan for revenge, I don't know, but I suspect the second part is he either means to destroy the whole of Gotham, or part of Gotham's population."
I blinked. "Part of? Which part?"
"I don't know. Either the meta-human part or the human part..." Barbara sighed and then shrugged. "Whatever part - it won't make us very happy."
"Granted", I grumbled. I eyed her closely. "You seem to know a whole lot about this guy for not knowing who he is?"
She shrugged again. "Not really. Dick and me have just been around a long time. We've met more of these psychotic creeps than you and Dinah have years together. No offense", she added, looking at us. Dinah shook her head and I shrugged non-committally.
"There's this strange thing about it, though", I said, thoughtfully frowning. "With this guy, I mean. He could have shot you, couldn't he? Why didn't he?"
It was then, only for the briefest, briefest moment, I noticed something in her eyes. Something shifted and for this tiniest second I saw that she was hiding something. The revelation hit me like a blow. She knows him. She knows who he is!
Then it was gone and her face and her eyes hid the truth as thoroughly as before. I would never have guessed the truth if I hadn't seen that hint of something in her eyes - a reflection of something unknown to me. She was truly an amazing actress. I studied her closer, immediately wanting to confront her about it, but then I thought better of it. Maybe she had a good reason not to tell the truth. Besides, it was only that split second giving me any indication that she was lying. I could be wrong. Thinking it I knew I wasn't, but I realized I trusted Barbara to know what she was doing. It was an odd experience for me.
"I don't know", she said, frowning and looking as bewildered as Dick. I was sure her confused expression was genuine. "Maybe he got distracted by the police."
"Who knows what psychotics are up to?" Dinah said, and then added, with a grimace: "Who would want to, by the way?"
"Well, it would be handy knowing", I pointed out. "To know how to stop them."
"Sure." Dinah looked at me and came to think about something. "Gibson will help you. Find info, I mean. I've talked to him. He's enraged at the kidnapping..."
"He is?" Barbara said surprised.
Dinah grinned at her. "A lot of the guests at the bar were really upset. Apparently you're more well-liked than you know amongst meta-humans. Barbara Gordon has fans."
"Odd thought", she said with a still surprised expression that made me smile.
"Good night, Barbara", Dinah said gently and moved to kiss her cheek. I noticed the loving caress Barbara gave her across her hair and felt a momentarily stab of jealousy in my heart. The two of them shared so much - they held such a love between them that nothing would come between them. The trust, the intimacy, the care. I wasn't part of it.
The three of them, I thought, correcting myself when Dick held Barbara close for a second and pressed his lips against her hair. He whispered something to her I couldn't hear and she nodded before giving him a soft smile.
"Good night", she said as they left.
We sat in comfortable silence for awhile, before she extended a hand towards me. I hesitated, not sure what was expected of me, but then I rose and went to her. I took her hand in mine and sat down beside her chair. Her fingers squeezed mine with a gentle touch.
"I haven't thanked you enough for what you did", she said, looking at me.
"I run", I said, feeling ashamed. "That's what I did."
"It was just as much my fault as yours", she said, blaming us both and at the same time putting the blame on no one. I didn't know what to say. Her hand was soft in mine; I liked the feeling. "You came back - that's what matters."
"I... It was the right thing to do", I said. She gave me a wry smile.
"And here I was thinking you cared about me", she teased bemusedly. I blushed and she laughed. She squeezed my hand once more before letting go. I found I wished she hadn't let go.
"How can you know so much about this guy?" I asked cautiously. "You know - the one that shot Boyd?"
She averted her eyes, looking out the windows at the lights from the walls and the ceiling reflecting itself in the glass not covered by the curtains. She didn't answer immediately and for once I didn't want to push things; I gave her time. "I might know him", she finally said and I felt a tiny shiver down my spine.
"How?" I asked carefully. She looked down in her lap, fidgeting with a pale pink strap from one of her last gifts.
"It's someone from my past. I... find it difficult to talk about."
I nodded.
She looked up and caught my gaze. "If... When I know more I promise I will tell you."
"Sure", I said. "Thanks", I added belatedly. "Um, for sharing... I mean."
She smiled amused at me and her look was a strange mix of tenderness and amusement, which made me feel oddly shy in her presence. "You're welcome."
"Um... I should get going", I mumbled and rose.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly and with my back towards her I closed my eyes. There was so much kindness and understanding in her voice it made my heart break. No one had asked me that, even after my mother's death. I had pushed away everyone I knew to be my friends and no one had dared making an effort to break down the steel walls I surrounded myself with. There were few people who could face me when I was lost in full wrath and my moody behavior hadn't made anything easier.
I hadn't been okay since my mother died. I hadn't cried once - even at her funeral. My tears had frozen to something else within me - a hard, sharp pain in my chest, ever constant. But now, hearing the tenderness in Barbara's voice, knowing there would be the same softness in her eyes if I looked at her, I felt something melt away. I had almost lost her too. I hardly knew her and I couldn't understand this sense of... kinship with this woman, and yet I would be willing to give my life for her on the spot. Feeling this way scared the hell out of me, not because of the strangeness of it - somehow it all felt very natural to me - but because I had sworn not to let anyone in to my life after my mother's death. I had sworn not to live through that pain again of losing the ones I love. And here comes this... puzzling woman and just swings open the doors to my guarded self.
"Helena?" she said gently as I didn't answer and I heard her rise behind me. I couldn't move. It wasn't until she put a careful hand at my shoulder I realized I was shaking. "Hush", she said softly and turned me towards her. She held me close and I felt her tender touch caressing me. "Hush now, just let it out. It's about time, I reckon."
I put my arms around her and finally gave in, sobbing like a child in her arms.
"You haven't cried since she died, have you?" she asked gently in my ear and I shook my head even though she didn't really expect an answer. She knew already. "I know", she mumbled, holding me tight. "I know what that's like. But you must cry - otherwise something will die inside you every time you don't..."
I should be comforting her, I thought. She was the one almost dying, but she held me firmly and the softness of her - the tenderness she showed me, and the kindness - was too much for me. I was like a child again, missing my mother.
I cried for a long time and she held me through it all, sitting with me on the floor in front of the armchair in a mess of gift-wrappings. She stroked my hair and caressed my cheeks, drying tears from my fevered skin with cool and gentle fingers. And then finally, sometime in the middle of the night, I fell asleep with my head in her lap, feeling safe - knowing I finally had found a place to call home, again.
Part Eight
Two weeks went by and Barbara's bruises and injuries healed. The media lost interest in the kidnapping-history as everything went back to normal (although Laura's Diner got a substantial increase in curious customers and earned as much in those two weeks as she previously had in two months - she was ashamed of taking profit of someone else's pain, though, and donated everything to charity). Cobra Enterprise was bought by Gordon Technologies and assimilated in Barbara's concern. She tried explaining things to me about the business, but I wasn't remotely interested and she lost me at industrial democracy and the advantages of being an enterprising spirit when dealing with business economics if you're an executive in a large firm.
"Huh - what?" I said with a yawn and she laughed, not the least insulted. That was part of what I liked about hanging around her - she seldom took things personally and was able to laugh at her own shortcomings. She taught me how to laugh at myself as well, when she teased me about my moody look or my bad morning temper - or any other thing she could come up with. I enjoyed her company and I enjoyed getting to know her. She could seem to be a happy person, but beneath the laughter I learned there was a solemn side to her. She seemed to enjoy life as only those do who know what it's like to lose it. Laughter that was never shallow, but always mixed with a certain depth; calm that was neither dull nor passive, but vibrant and always alert; looks and smiles that hid more than the first impression suggested.
I felt like a child being around her, but she treated me like a woman - like an equal. As Batgirl and Huntress we had fun together, but we might as well stay up a whole night caught in a serious discussion when being ourselves.
The night when I cried in her arms had changed me. When I woke up in the morning I was a different person - less angry, less hurt and with a different purpose in life. I didn't think about my mother's death or her killer in two weeks. Being with Barbara was enough for me.
Gotham - both the older town and the newer parts - was almost unnatural quite after Barbara's rescue and Boyd's death. The more high-ranking criminals seemed to keep a low profile and the lower thugs seemed to be more careful than usual. We all suspected it had something to do with the mysterious guy shooting Boyd, but there were no signs of him anywhere.
At least - that was what I thought until I late one night returned to the Clocktower by way of the window-ledge that I had used at my first visit to the place. The kitchen was dark as I stepped in, but a soft light lit the lower parts of the open area where Nightwing and Barbara stood talking in front of Delphi. I leaned on the railing and was about to greet them when I heard his upset voice.
"You can't tell her!" Nightwing said and I stepped back, hiding in the shadows. My first reaction was to leave again, but something made me linger and I heard Barbara calmly say:
"I must. I'm going to."
"There's no telling what she'll do! Oracle..."
"I trust her", Barbara stated, still in a low, precise voice. As usual she wasn't raising to the bait.
"You can't trust her. She's unpredictable. She doesn't care about what we do. You know the only reason she's here is because she can get what you can give her..."
"No", Barbara shook her head. "Maybe that was true before, but not now..."
Nightwing threw out his arms. "You trust her too much in this!"
"If I lie to her I will lose her, Dick", Barbara said, with a slight note of pain I didn't understand. "Don't you see?"
Nightwing shook his head. "You might lose her anyway. She's not like Dinah - there's darkness in her."
Barbara didn't say anything at first and when she spoke it was so soft I barely heard her.
"There's darkness within us all, Dick."
I noticed Nightwing flinch and wondered about it. He stiffened and stared at Barbara. "I'm sorry, Barbara", he finally said, with deep pain. "I... didn't mean it that way."
"I know", she said, gently, but then sighed and shook her head. "I have to do this, Dick. She is not a child, after all."
"But..."
"No", she said in a voice I recognized that would forestall any objections. I'd never doubted who was the leader of this pack, even if they seemed equals. I fleetingly wondered what had made it so. "I've made up my mind. I'll..."
Barbara abruptly silenced and I got this eerie feeling she suddenly knew I was hiding in the shadows, listening. I quickly moved away and went out the window. Whatever their disagreement was about she would tell me later. I had a feeling I knew what it involved.
I made an extra sweep around town before returning to the Clocktower. This time Barbara was alone in the kitchen, no doubt waiting for me.
"Hi", I said as I walked in and leaned against the counter. She was sitting at the table with some kind of map in front of her. When she noticed me she folded it and put it aside.
"Hi", she said, looking at me.
"What?" I said, glancing down at my clothes. "Something wrong with my outfit? A bird shit on me, or something?"
She shook her head with a quiet smile. "I'm just glad you're with us", she said, surprising me. I looked up and shrugged.
"Well, yeah - me too." I nodded at the map. "What's that?"
She glanced at the map. "Nothing much", she said absent-minded. She was silent for a moment, but then seemed to make up her mind. "I've found him", she said and I stiffened, straightening my back.
"Who?"
"The Blackbird-guy", she said, looking at me, and I felt my heart contract in disappointment.
"Oh."
"He is a meta-human... kind of."
I frowned. "Kind of?"
"Mmm. Remember the warehouse I figured he used as a lab? It turns out he was experimenting with transferring meta-human abilities to normal people. So - not only did he somehow manage to create a whole army of clones, or killer-robots by parts he bought from Boyd's company, he also stole a certain meta-human's power."
"What meta-human?"
"His name is not important - his ability is. This particular meta-human had the ability to absorb another meta-humans ability when close to them. The disadvantage for him was that he got a splitting headache as a secondary effect. He became psychotic as a teenager and was institutionalized at Arkam Asylum years ago, where they held him completely isolated from people. He never committed any crime, he just didn't have a family and they didn't know what to do with him and... You know - Arkam's the place where they put everything they don't understand. So... the interesting thing is that almost a year ago he had a visitor, claiming to be his brother. This alleged brother was allowed to take him from Arkam to care for him."
"And let me guess? No one ever seen him again?"
"Oh - he was seen. Dead, more like it - by suicide. The grieving brother apparently blamed himself for taking him from Arkam, which he stated in a lengthy, apologetic letter to the head of Arkam Asylum. The meta-human was buried and that was the end of the story."
"Who was the brother?" I asked.
"A fascinating Mr. Michael Boyd, according to the head of Arkam", Barbara stated flatly and I blinked. She nodded at my look. "Right. A dead end - you might think."
"Apparently not", I said dryly. "I don't follow", I added with a frown. "How do you know all of this?"
"Research", she said.
I shook my head. "But... All of a sudden?"
"No, it's been building up... Some pieces here, some pieces there..."
I thought about it. "You knew about this even before I met you, didn't you? You've kept it all a secret, not even from me, but from..." I suddenly understood Nightwings agitation - he wasn't only upset about what ever he thought she was going to tell me, but about the fact that she had kept secrets from him. And lied about it.
"I did. I'm not proud of it, but I deemed it necessary." She sighed, pulling a hand through her hair. "Dick's upset with me, as would be expected."
"Why?" I asked. "Why did you keep it a secret?"
She shook her head, suddenly looking weary. "I suspected it was him already from the beginning. His name is Patch Parker - or Patchy."
"Patchwork Consultation", I mumbled and she arched an eyebrow at me.
"You remember? Yes" - she nodded - "that's him. He's like the spider in a web - you never see him, but he pulls the strings, controlling everything. Years ago he hired a man - professor Romanek - to create a way to transfer meta-human abilities to ordinary people. It seems they finally succeeded."
"So, this Patchy now has the ability to absorb the powers of meta-humans in his surroundings? But wouldn't he get the headaches as well?"
"To begin with he did, but they managed to work around that. Patchy is an extremely dangerous man in himself, but with this ability... He's deadly to anyone, Helena. Even to you."
I nodded, realizing that.
"He is, also, quite insane."
"Go figure", I muttered. "Are there never any perfectly healthy serial-killers around?" I met Barbara's gaze. "You've known about this meta-human transfer thing for quite awhile, haven't you? That's why you've been so adamant he was a meta-human?"
"Yes. Two months ago professor Romanek was found dead. Only three days before he had sent me an e-mail telling me what was going on..."
"You - as in...? Who?" I asked.
"Barbara Gordon, head of Gordon Technologies. Professor Romanek wanted to share his invention, but he didn't want it to get in the wrong hands, as he realized it obviously already had. He didn't give me any details and didn't mention any location about where he was based. I e-mailed him back, but he never replied. When they found him dead I suspected Patchy caught him at contacting me, held him captive a few days to refine the experiment - or just for the fun of it - and then got rid of him."
"So - we have a full-blown psychotic on the loose. With ninja-people and killer robots... And I thought we were in for a holiday." I grinned at her, but she didn't even smile back.
"I don't think we have to worry about the ninjas. Another source has informed me they all died that night at the break in at Arkam..."
Another source? What the heck...? "..." Before I had time to say anything she went on:
"The cloning was successful for a short period, but the archetypes collapsed after a specific period..."
"Archetypes?"
"The clones - the ones we met. Apparently Patchy created them only for this one purpose. If he really thought he could release whole of Arkam's criminals is questionable. I think he thought it worth a shot, but..."
"But, what?" I didn't like the sound of her but.
"But I think he was quite specific about which prisoner to escape."
"Clayface", I said immediately and she nodded.
"Yes - he had a purpose with that. You've got to be careful, Helena. I think Clayface is meant to kill you, and with his ability..."
"Shapeshifter, I know." I nodded. "But why do you think he'd come for me?"
"He's tried to take your mother down once and besides... You're making a name for yourself. I don't doubt Patchy has his own plans for you."
"Let him come. I'll kick his sorry ass."
"Be careful, that's all", she said with a worried frown and I nodded, giving her my serious look.
"Don't worry, I will. So", I added, looking at her. "Do we know where this Patchy-thing hangs around?"
"I do", she said, holding my gaze and I blinked, not quite expecting that answer.
"You do? How...? Never mind. What are we doing here, then?"
She hesitated. "Helena - there's something you need to know."
I felt a chill along my back, hearing her speak my name like that - seeing that look in her eyes. And I knew before she said anything what she was going to say.
"Patch Parker is the one that killed your mother."
Time seemed to shift slightly as I held her gaze. I saw my mother's bleeding body, heard the soft laughter behind me but couldn't see anything outside the windows. Darkness - and the red of my mother's blood. Her blood was everywhere - on my hands, on my clothes - and I couldn't stop it. Pain and fear.
Pain turned to anger and fear to hatred.
"Where?" I snarled, moving towards the woman at the table. "Where is he?"
"I won't tell you, Helena", she said, holding my gaze even though my eyes had changed in anger.
"Tell me!" I demanded bitingly.
"Not like this. We'll do it like a team. I'm not having you go crusading like a lone ranger..."
I stopped, staring at her with hatred. She seemed unruffled and I grind my teeth, knowing she wouldn't give in. Without another word I turned around and left her.