Chapter Text
New Genesis, Palace of Empress Avia
“My empress”. Lashina calls out in greeting as she kneels on the ground before the woman who was seated within her throne, looking down upon her as well as the few others she had allowed into the throne room for this momentous occasion. Avia smiled happily, finding herself easily able to do so whenever she laid eyes upon the woman who’d become a rather prominent fixture upon New Genesis over the past few months.
That shocked many of the surviving New Genesians, each one pondering over the reasons why the queen of Apokolips, now a rapidly changing vassal state of New Genesis, would come here so often.
They didn’t have anything concrete, and so nothing but rumors remained for them to feast upon. But the former queen turned empress would wager a bet herself if it was asked of her why she thought the woman kept coming back to Apokolips.
The answer?
Standing right beside her.
Orion, handsome as ever in his court robes, continued to glare down at Lashina, his arms crossed over his chest as he did so, and Avia, ever observant Avia, watched as the woman raised her head ever so slightly so as to smirk back at the man. She clearly, very clearly, knew that she was annoying him to no end, her mere presence there setting him off.
And Avia finds herself…happy with this turn of events. Mainly because she knew this enjoyment of irritation was a mask for something else.
“You may rise Queen Lashina”.
An instant later the woman does just that, allowing the newly formed New Genesian court a look at her new form of dress. Gone was the skin tight suit and steel bands, though Avia knew they were present, hidden under her new garments. A woman such as Lashina would never leave her palace, let alone her planet without them.
In their place was a rather…fetching black dress with a low plunging neckline and a short trail behind her. It was long sleeved, covering her shoulders and clinging to her, showcasing her not inconsiderable assets. Lashina was a beautiful, very beautiful woman. Across her brow was a circlet, designating her as a royal, a queen.
The queen of Apokolips.
As she rose she kept her eyes on Orion exclusively, refusing to turn away, continuing to smirk. After a few more seconds of this she snaps back onto Avia, and her smile seemed less teasing, and more genuine. Avia and Lashina both were surprised but, despite everything? They actually liked each other.
Avia found Lashina’s candor refreshing and Lashina was incessantly soaking up the queen’s pearls of wisdom, Avia revealing herself to be far more cutthroat and Machiavelian than anyone would have ever thought. She had to be to survive Izaya.
Avia remained in her throne as she spoke, gesturing for Lashina, under guard, to come forward with her hand. She begins to speak while the woman was in the midst of her strides towards the woman.
“How goes things on Apokolips? All is well?”
“Yes my empress” Lashina responds, getting closer and now fighting her instinct to wink or blow a kiss at Orion before lapsing into her otherwise normal fare of mockery and teasing. “Your edicts are being enacted every day, and my parademons ensure they continue to be so. All slaves are free, torture has ceased and the firepits are being cooled and closed. Surprisingly agriculture is spreading across the planet and for the first time in our existence we are finding market economies to be superior to conquest”.
A wry smile graced her lips as she spoke those words, making it clear that she was being sarcastic.
“Ahhh, well that is good news. I’m quite glad. Any assistance that New Genesis can render to make Apokolips more…prosperous, please make me aware and it shall be granted”.
It went unsaid that Avia had a vested interest in ensuring that Apokolips stayed on the straight and narrow. None of them wanted war to return. None of them. Even Lashina, the one most expected to break the peace, was starting to realize the benefits of peace.
She liked that statues were being put up of her, not by her own order, but by the volition of the newly freed lowlies. One that she particularly liked was right outside of her palace, previously Lady Darkseid’s, and towered at least two hundred feet. It showed her, using one of her metal bands, to break the chains shackled around a lowly’s wrist, numerous of the denizens around her, cheering her on.
She was now known as the Liberator Queen, a title she wasn’t exactly adverse to.
Even if it was more thanks to Avia.
But aside from these pesky little facts, Lashina was enjoying herself. Her servants doted on her every move, and every action she took was met with loud, raucous cheers that, for possibly the first time in Apokoliptian history, were not forced. Everything she did made life better, and it cost her nothing. It spurred her on further quite frankly.
She was soon doing good for the sake of good, infected without knowing it by the New Genesian virus. Some nobles grumbled, but otherwise they said nothing. They too reaped the benefits of the New Apokolips.
“Thank you my queen. And likewise. Should New Genesis ever need Apokolips to rise to her defense, we shall be ready. The War Store will never fully be gone, and with the flick of a wrist, we can restart the furnaces”.
A veiled threat, or rather a warning.
Avia accepted this. Was fine with it.
“Yes. Quite. I appreciate the sentiment, Queen Lashina. I’m glad you could come here today, for now, with all that our worlds have accomplished together, we can officialize our alliance”. Everyone waited with baited breath as they knew what that meant. Marriage. A marriage between the two worlds. That was how alliances were traditionally done in the past.
And through this tradition, Avia now saw her own chance to maneuver Lashina to her own purposes.
“Normally” she begins, watching as Lashina’s face crunches up, showing that she was clearly deep in thought about something, her gears working overtime, though it was not to see how Avia was playing her. No, she was thinking of how to use this herself.
“I would offer up my son Orion, to be betrothed to you, thus securing peace between our two worlds forever”. Orion scowls at this, and looks at his mother, his eyes instantly softening and a pleading expression plastering itself across his face. It went unspoken.
‘Mother please…no’.
“But, I would never do such a thing. Especially not against his wishes. He is far, far too dear to me”.
Orion instantly relaxes, heaving a sigh of relief while Lashina grows agitated at his comfort, seeing it as a challenge. ‘Hmmm…marriage…marriage to Orion’. For a second she was disgusted by the mere thought of it, though she disregards that instantly as nothing more than feigned disgust. She had seen the man in the nude before, having decided to toss a rotten Gordanian plumfruit into the shower he was in upon one of her prior visits to the palace.
He had rushed out screaming in disgust and rage while she simply fell onto the floor, holding her midsection while laughing uproariously.
In that time though, her breath had hitched.
Orion was handsome…very handsome, and to Lashina he looked even better without any clothes on.
‘Bekka was a fool. How could laying with him be a hardship in the slightest? Perhaps a lack of experience? Pfft…if she had gifted him that experience he would be the perfect lover by now’. She loathed the dead woman, truly loathed her. Her beauty, her perfidy. The fact that she so upset Orion.
Nobody but her got to…well…not upset him. She didn’t really like seeing him upset. It disgusted her. His moping. The sadness. It was unbecoming of a New God. Besides that? It made her feel…strange.
She liked seeing him angry, agitated, and Lashina hated Bekka because she now knew that it was only her right to anger or irritate him. The more extreme version of those emotions …she would be more than happy to leave out of his lexicon.
Besides the obvious physical attraction there was the added benefit of ensuring peace between their worlds. Cooperation in perpetuity. This was favorable to Lashina as she most certainly didn’t want to go back to war, a war that she knew she would lose without Kara backing up Apokolips and without treachery behind New Genesis’ forces.
‘It will be the perfect way to annoy him! Yes!’
That was what she seized on more than anything else. All the ways she could get at Orion. Burning his meals, interrupting his private time, insulting him, demanding his attention and that he pamper her, embarrassing him in public. All of these things could be done, all while getting all the perks of marriage along the way.
She knew Orion well enough now. He would treat her with the utmost respect and loyalty, love even, and suffer her incessant mockery. It was decided in Lashina’s mind, the quick calculus done with ease. She would demand that tradition be followed, and she would demand that she and Orion marry!
‘Ha! You’ll be stuck with me for eternity you big…stupid…beautiful blowhard!’
A concession she would make in return for all of this? She would honor her wedding vows, and make yet another on top of it. To never hurt, embarrass or humiliate him in that way. From the moment they were wedded she would be his and his alone, and Apokolips help any man who looked to make a move upon her.
Or any woman who wished to pursue him.
She could see the writing on the wall. Ever since Bekka’s death, at her hands, other goddesses on New Genesis had begun moving towards Orion, especially the widows. They all feigned care and concern, whispering to him sweet nothings about how bad they felt for him and how they always wanted to say something.
‘Liars. All of them’.
Lashina knew the truth. They’d laughed at him behind his back, mocked him, and now were hoping to secure for themselves his affection to advance. If she didn’t intervene he would wind up marrying another Bekka. The pain would be incalculable. She had to do this. For him. ‘I must save the idiot from himself’.
“Actually my empress!”
She pipes up instantly, moving even closer up the steps and drawing a confused look from Orion and a knowing gaze from Avia. She sways her hips as she advances, not stopping until she was face to face with the man, looking up at him, her long, flowing black locks free about her shoulder.
“I must insist upon tradition”.
“WHAT?!”
Orion had thought himself out of the woods, free of this irritating…beautiful, but still irritating! Woman. Apparently though she was doing the exact opposite of what he expected. It was clear to him now. She was playing some sort of game, one meant to get at him.
His eyes narrow and he glares at her, while she smiles innocently…to innocently. Impossibly innocently for a Fury. Avia just rests her hand on her chin and turns to the side, watching as an almost visible energy ripples between the two of them, two magnets pulled in against one another.
‘Ohh Orion…she is smitten with you’.
“After all” Lashina teases, playing the coquette as she flirts, reaching out for Orion’s chest and rubbing it up and down through the robes he wore. “We have suffered by moving away from tradition, far, far too much under Izaya. Besides that, wouldn’t Apokolips having a king, one of your own, further solidify your comfort?”
“What are you doing?” Orion seethes.
She blinks and feigns confusion.
“Whatever do you mean my beloved? I am simply telling your mother that you and I wish to be wed”.
“We do not wish to be wed” he corrects, or rather tries to, barely able to keep his sentence from becoming a stutter. “Awwww, he is jittery. I understand Orion” she sighs. “It’s so much to spring upon you all of the sudden. A man such as you…weak willed and all that…” She trails off, lowering her head and her gaze, knowing exactly what she was doing at that moment.
She was baiting him.
And as usual, Orion took it. Just like he always did.
“I’m. Not. Weak. Willed”.
He growls this out, just able to keep his composure.
“Ohh? It certainly seems like it. Besides that you are intimidated by a strong willed woman. You’re not up to the task of being my husband, are you?”
“Knock it off”.
He was warning her, and for some reason the gravel in his voice sent a tingle up Lashina’s spin, making her tremble.
‘Rip open his shirt’.
That thought came out of nowhere, or rather from deep within her subconscious, a desire to see her target’s body once again filling her. She turns away, wanting to resist before she gives in and reveals her cards, cards she hid even from herself now. That she…sort of….possibly…really liked Orion.
“Let it be known that Orion, son of Empress Avia, is afraid of a woman. Hah! He probably wants some submissive little strumpet now, doesn’t he?”.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The Apokoliptian retinue burst into laughter, while Orion just turned bright red, fuming as he grits his teeth and clenches his fist. He wanted to…he wanted to…well he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do right then and there. He knew he didn’t want to hit her, the thought of doing so filled him with revulsion, but he kept looking at her lips. Those full, pouty lips, and that desire fills him.
“Awwwww, he’s mad. It’s probably for the best Orion”.
She leans in, her hand still upon his chest as she pecks his cheek, standing up on her tippy toes. Right after that she moves into his ear, whispering while Avia watches all of this with a raised eyebrow, deciding to not intervene in the slightest.
“You wouldn’t survive our wedding night. Not with me. That little slut Bekka, for all her experience, never would’ve been able to do the things I would do for you”. He reaches out as she says this, and on instinct grasps her waist, squeezing tightly and drawing an eep from Lashina’s lips, not having expected the man to touch her. When she looks back into his face she feels a sliver of…well…suffice to say it wasn’t fear.
‘Did I push him too far?’
Avia smiles and shakes her head.
‘Come now Orion. You’re not going to let this little woman speak to you in such a way, are you?’
Before the queen’s thought even ended the man had lunged forward, and everyone nearly jumped, having expected the man to attack the woman, but instead? The opposite had happened. It was true. Orion could, and would, no longer take the woman’s teasing, but he hadn’t hit her.
Instead, to shut her up?
The only thing he could think to do…was kiss her.
He planted his lips right on Lashina’s, forcing himself as forward as he possibly could, all the while he held her body close, his grip ferocious upon her waist. If Lashina was a normal woman, it might’ve hurt, but instead? She felt the exact opposite of pain. She felt pleasure. Orion’s lips felt divine to her.
Slowly she closes her eyes and pushes herself back into the kiss, raising her leg which she wraps around him, forcing the man to remove his hand from her hip and instead grasp her bare thigh which protruded through the slit in the lower portion of her dress. He grasps her ferociously, and in order to balance herself Lashina throws her arms around his shoulders, clutching him tightly.
“Mmmm…mmmmm”.
It seemed as if the passion bristling between them had metamorphosed, and neither of them had been ready for it. What happened next? Well…they’d have to face it, ironically enough, together. Everyone was shocked, everyone, all save for Empress Avia who smiles serenely as the kiss goes on and on.
‘I better get ready to clear the room if they take this any further…he never kissed Bekka like that, nor did she ever kiss him in such a way’.
“Klik?”
“Yes, my empress?” her ever loyal bug asks, remaining close but trying to look away, not wanting to interfere in what was going on, something which was clearly unique and special, even in terms of the world of the New Gods.
“I believe that we should get ready for a wedding after all. I wish for the very best to be obtained. Food, drink, music. Everything. And beyond that I wish to hurry along the rebuilding of Izaya’s palace. I believe it would make a fitting gift to the soon to be newly wed couple”.
Klik smiles, his mandibles clacking together rapidly as he nods.
“Yes my empress. I do believe that you are correct”.
It was yet another happy day here on New Genesis.
Apokolips, Holding Cells Beneath the Palace of Queen Lashina
Drip! Drip! Drip!
It was a rhythmic sound, the sound of liquids dropping down into the beaker below, perfectly balanced and positioned so as to obtain the best results in terms of the mixture being worked on. Of course, that didn’t mean that the woman in charge of all of this wasn’t watching closely.
She remained there, perched low, watching as each drop fell into the glass.
And she waited.
She would wait the three hours it would take for the process to be repeated, after which she would do the exact same thing until the process was completed. This all happened under the watchful eye of an entire troop of parademons, led by Nightwing’s former guards, Bugs and Daffy.
Bernadeth didn’t care.
She just ignored them, like she always did, having become more than content with spending the days that passed by in silence, wrapped up only in her thoughts. She knew that she was fortunate. She was a prisoner yes, but even still she had an unprecedented amount of freedom.
Provided she work on what Lashina wished for her to work on.
At the moment? That was pesticide. A perfect killer of pests that would do this job without injuring the crops or leaving any lingering side effects behind. Bernadeth had become largely effective at this task, and had already developed a few different compounds that would provide not only higher yielding crops, but a greater degree of health on the former lowlies.
Much of the newfound greatness of Apokolips had to do with Bernadeth and her hard work, of which she labored intensely.
Medicines, cures for diseases that had gone untreated and even unknown or cared for under Uxas and Kara. All of that came out of this lab that had been set up in spades, one after the other it seemed, and all because Lashina had made Bernadeth a deal.
“If you work as hard as possible to make this world better” the new empress said, having brought up the prisoner and former Fury to her throne room, glaring down at her yet somehow failing to bring about the requisite hatred. “I shall make your imprisonment easier”.
“What do you want me to do?”
Bernadeth, once so self assured, so confident, was broken, lacking in everything that had made her strong and feared now. She didn’t even look Lashina in the eye, and beyond that? She was dirty, emaciated, even more so than usual.
Even Lashina was moved to pity.
Many things had become clear, first and foremost for Lashina the loss. The loss of Stompa and Harriet and what that meant. Only when they were gone did she realize the level of care she held for them. The sisterhood that, while nowhere near loving and soft, still meant so much to her. They’d survived Apokolips. Since birth they’d had to fight together, even when they didn’t want to. Even when ripping out the throat of the others would’ve felt like a good idea.
And now two of them were gone.
Even with her anger, Lashina couldn’t stand the idea of losing Bernadeth too, another hint of familiarity and comfort that at least some things in the world hadn’t changed. Of course there was also the desire of Kara and Avia to have her rehabilitated, and with the dawn of a new age upon Apokolips…well…Lashina had excuses that she could use to cover the truth.
She cared.
“I want you to think for those other than yourself”.
“Pfft”.
Lashina doesn’t even respond to the sarcastic response, knowing that it was warranted. From her? That sounded like rank hypocrisy. When had Lashina ever thought of anyone other than herself her entire life? Any of them really, maybe aside from Harriet who, oddly enough, had the biggest kind streak within her.
‘Harriet…’
Of the two, Lashina found herself missing the yellow skinned, cackling Fury the most.
She knew that trying to convince the other woman that she had changed would be folly. She wasn’t sure if she’d even changed or if circumstances had simply forced her hand. So instead? She goes another avenue.
“Don’t you want a few creature comforts? Clean clothes, a warm bed? Or do you want to continue languishing in my dungeon? Besides that, you and I both know you need to work with your hands. Do something, anything. I’m giving you that opportunity. It’s your choice Bernadeth”.
She leans back on her throne, glaring down at the woman though without any conviction.
“I’m not going to beg you”.
She didn’t have to. As it turned out, the ability to work on things, even things not involving murder and schemes, was tempting. Too tempting. Bernadeth took the deal, and in return she got fresh, clean clothes, a bed, a shower and a few amenities like books and holotapes. When she went to her lab she was watched very, very closely, and sometimes? Even Lashina would come in.
Funnily enough?
She’d actually just talk to Bernadeth. Making her aware of the things that were going on in the outside world, asking her what she thought, asking for advice sometimes when she felt like she had come up against a wall of sorts. Somehow? Lashina and Bernadeth were actually closer now than they or any of the other Furies had ever been, though outside of Apokolips that wasn’t saying much.
Bernadeth turns away for a moment, thinking that she could afford to do such a thing, and instead looks up towards the right side of the room where a series of tubes were placed. The tubes were large, large enough to fit a massive creature indeed, though she had given her word that no such thing was being done.
Lashina had warned Bernadeth.
Another attempt at Doomsday would be met with…harsh punishment.
Bernadeth said she wouldn’t.
She’d told the truth too.
The mere thought of the woman who’d been killed, as Bernadeth refused to call her a monster, was almost enough to send her into tears. Doomsday had been her one, and only, chance to be a mother. And for the moment that she’d had her, she was happy. She had looked forward to a future in which she and Jason could serve as Doomsday’s parents. Dote upon her, teach her. Love her.
When Highfather sacrificed himself that dream had been ripped away.
To Bernadeth? She was the mother of a murdered child, and the idea of retrying, replacing her…it was unfathomable. She still dreamed of her. Her greatest creation. Lost forever. No, she wouldn’t be replaced. Not now, not ever.
But…there were other possibilities. Other things that she could do with what she had learned. She emotionlessly looks through the glass into the swirling green liquid within, and she knows, just knows, that her experiment in this second attempt was beginning to bear fruit. ‘It will be some time until anything can be seen’.
She wonders if Lashina will have her killed when she finds out, and she will find out. In many ways Lashina was a better queen than Kara, first and foremost amongst said reasons being her level of involvement. She seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere, keeping her appraised. Delegation was not something she did easily.
If she was to be killed?
Well…she didn’t think it mattered. Nothing mattered, not anymore. Not to her. Death might be preferable to this, but, even still, the scientist in her couldn’t help but be curious as to what was going to happen.
Inside the tanks were the microscopic beginnings of life. New Gods being birthed and grown within a test tube. These were not, strictly speaking, new creations though, for their origins were not from a myriad number of people. They were not Frankenstein like creatures, spliced together by Bernadeth’s madness.
They were not monsters made with murder as their purpose and intent.
They weren’t blank slates either.
No.
Inside the tanks were the microscopic, genetic material of both Stompa and Harriet respectively, the cells of which were rapidly growing, splitting off from one another, and multiplying seemingly ad infinitum. A baby would be formed within the nutrient rich goop, and in contrast to how Doomsday had been brought into the world, Bernadeth would not wait until they were aged to remove them from the artificial womb.
No, something about that seemed wrong. Evil, and Bernadeth was too apathetic even for evil nowadays. She felt…lost. Everything was different now…and she hadn’t been ready for that. Like Bernadeth, the immortal Apokoliptian had gotten used to things. To being oppressed by Kara, and having Stompa and Harriet as well as Barda nearby.
Now?
None of that was true…and she found that she missed it. She hadn’t been ready for the world she hoped to create after seizing power, and besides that she hadn’t been able to do so. She had nothing now, nothing. Not even Jason whom she now knew to be beyond her reach for eternity…in Barda’s arms.
The thought filled her with rage, a rage she quickly fought against. She now knew that her anger had led her to this. She hadn’t been thinking, and because of that she’d destroyed everything worth anything to her.
She had to be smart going forward, and the first step was acknowledging what was. She was never going to have him, and she would never rule Apokolips. Instead? She would work her way back up to the position that she had lost, or perhaps something better, or equal to it, but different.
And this?
This is the first step.
Within a few days there would be a visible mass of flesh within each tank, a mass that would go on to form the new Harriet and Stompa, who in turn would be Lashina’s new Furies. Her guards and eventual warriors, but trained under the new laws of Apokolips.
And perhaps, in time…Lashina would allow her to clone a Jason of her own. She still had some of his DNA in the form of a single hair that she had taken and kept close to her since then.
That…that would be her reward.
Or so she hoped.
For now that was all she had left. Hope.
Oddly enough she had more hope now than she did before her world imploded.
It was funny how things could work sometimes.
Gotham City, Roof of the GCPD
“Yer sure he’s comin’?”
“Yes”.
That was all Lieutenant, soon to be Commissioner, Montoya could say in response to Harvey Bullock who stood at her side, both of them exposed to the chilly night which was ripe with wind as it blew across the rooftop. It would’ve chilled them to the bone had they not been covered by the coats they wore.
“How do ya know?”
“Because he told me”.
“Through that special phone o’ his that he gave ya huh? What gives? No contact fer so long, not showin’ his face fer so long, and then he comes back right afta’ everything goes ta shit? Somethin’s off”. Montoya says nothing in response to Harvey’s merited diatribe, not able to help herself from thinking the same thing.
It was odd.
Everything in regards to the Batman was. But she couldn’t deny that it was only thanks to him that the events of the Arkham War, as the events were now being called, came to an end. Well...him and his new friend, though Renee had the suspicion that they were something more.
She’d appeared right when he reappeared, taking the city all by herself, moving with godlike powers and cleaning it all up in an instant. And beyond that? She did it without killing a single person.
Every one of Harley Quinn’s allies and foot soldiers had been brought in, safe and sound. Hell, it even brought forward some unexpected complaints from the judiciary system which had gotten used to not actually having to do anything to justify their high wages. Their dockets were going to be full for months and it was unlikely it would be easy.
The only one who was happy was a young prosecutor by the name of Harvey Dent, a moral crusader who wanted to clean up the city more than anything else. He was single minded in this pursuit.
And he was going after each and every one of them as harshly as he could.
So many of Harleen’s goons were claiming that they were coerced, forced to go along with the woman’s mad scheme due to Ivy’s pheromones. But that wasn’t flying in any of their cases. The toxicology reports had come in and none, not one, had suffered under Ivy’s powers. Of course for Oswald Cobblepot’s Amazons things were different, and they were already let off the hook. They’d been brainwashed and had acted against their own volition.
But everyone else? Harvey was going after with the entire might of Gotham City, holding nothing back. They wouldn’t escape via insanity or coercion.
As for the others, Riddler, Cheetah, Manta and Ivy? They’d been returned to Arkham. Now that Harleen Quinzel was dead they were catatonic, unmoving, having apparently been so broken by the woman that they needed her orders to even eat or defecate. They were effectively brain dead, dormant, none of the attempts the new Arkham staff made to bring them out of it doing a thing.
For the rest of their lives they’d be needing around the clock care, and Montoya was wondering if it was even worth it, why they didn’t just pull the plug.
‘Speaking of pulling the plug…Pennyworth’s dead’.
That had shocked her. The sudden reappearance of Bruce Wayne in Gotham right after the events, the true story of what had happened coming out. Apparently Harleen had kidnapped him, and used his kidnapping as a pretense for trying to take over the city due to their…connection. He was fine, and the woman’s strangely dressed accomplices were still at large.
‘Everything’s all back to normal. Neatly fitting into each and every box. Almost’.
She was still waiting on a few more answers.
Mainly why Batman had let the city that they had worked so hard to secure go to hell like it had.
“Hello Lieutenant”.
“Jesus!”
Harvey jumps, his hand going to his holstered pistol at his side instinctively, unable to help himself. Recent events have made everyone jumpy.
Nobody could blame him, not even Renee who slowly turns and realizes that Batman had appeared. He was there, standing upon the roof a few feet behind them. And he wasn’t alone. Besides him, floating a foot or so off the ground, was a woman. The very same woman who had saved the city.
The papers were calling her Power Girl.
She wore a tight, form fitting white unitard that clung to her body, exposing her ample assets to the gaze of the Hispanic woman, who certainly appreciated it more than she probably should’ve. Being a lesbian left her with a love for the female form, and her specific persuasions made her very amenable to busty blondes.
‘Jesus Christ…she’s even hotter in person’.
A red cape swirled behind her, and blue boots completed her uniform, her long blonde hair done up at the moment in a tight bun at the back of her head. “Good evening lieutenant” she greets somewhat warmly, something that was miles apart from Batman’s cold, sterile greeting.
“Evening”.
Speaking of Batman, she turns to look at him, and notices instantly that he too had changed. He wore a cape now, and apparently? Didn’t have a single gun on him. Instead he wore a utility belt, and what was inside? She could only guess at. He looked like an entirely different person, only the bat symbol on his chest letting her know that this was the guy.
“We need to talk”.
“Yeah. We do” the Hispanic woman counters, glaring out angrily as she approaches the man. “What the hell happened? Where the fuck were you?”
“Indisposed”.
“Pretty fucking convenient cabron!You know how many people died because you weren’t here? What the fuck happened?!!!” Things were heating up, and they definitely didn’t want them too. Someone had to step in. Kara could see it. Bruce was reaching the end of his patience already.
“Lieutenant, if I may?”
She sounded so polite, so soft, and on instinct Renee softened as she turned to look at the woman. “It’s my fault. I…I took Batman away. I…I can only apologize for what I did. I didn’t think at the time…or…maybe I didn’t care about the effects such a thing would have. Please, you need to understand. It wasn’t his fault”.
“You? Why’d you take him then?”
“I…I needed him for something. Something far away from here. Not even on this planet. I…I can’t get into it. It doesn’t help us to focus on it anyways”. Kara had changed. That much was clear, but the scars? Ohh the scars still remained and most likely would for the rest of her life. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to fight tooth and nail to keep changing. Keep being the better version of herself that she wanted to be.
“Alien huh? Pfft…I figured. What do you want Batman? What the hell are you both doing here?”
Harvey was much more reluctant to engage with the woman who had already shown she could level cities with her powers if she wanted to, nor the man who’d sooner put a bullet in your head rather than be looked at funny, so he kept back, listening and not speaking.
“We’re here because we need to talk to you” Batman pipes up, once more seizing control of the conversation, but in a much more measured, calm way. “About how things are going to be in Gotham City moving forward.”
“Huh?”
“Something happened to me. Something I can’t explain, Lieutenant. But I’ve changed. And I’ve come to see what we were doing for what it was. Evil”.
“Bullshit. We cleaned this city up and kept it clean. We took out the scumbags, and-,”
“You yourself have had doubts” Bruce counters, cutting the woman off right at the pass, causing Montoya to go silent. He was right. She’d been doubting what they were doing for a long time. And ever since they’d whacked Jim Gordon? It had only grown more intense.
“We don’t need to draw this out. It’s pointless to do so. We have too much work to do and I’m not going to debate it. I’ve changed, and I’m committed to helping Gotham without bloodshed. Without murder. Power Girl is here to help me as well”.
“You can count on me Lieutenant”.
Power Girl was a very necessary chipper counterpart to have set against Batman. Unlike him? She smiled, and that somehow made this feel a little easier. Renee grumbled to herself, pushing her hands into her pockets and pointedly turning away, knowing that it was useless to fight.
“You think you can just make that decision on your own huh?”
“Yes”.
It stung that he answered so quickly. Mostly because he was right. He could make that decision on his own, even if he didn’t have the world’s mightiest new hero on his side. It was his city. His call. Always had been.
“You change things around and you know that we’re going to have crime on our hands. Real crime. We’re going to have to put in a lot of extra work instead of just having things go clean. Like they have been”.
“I’m aware, Montoya”.
“You better stick around to clean up the mess”.
“We will be”.
It was Power Girl who answered that time, looking into Montoya’s eyes as if to further the weight of her words, giving them all the weight of a promise. A vow. Those eyes…they were really pretty.
“Our new style of patrol begins tonight”.
“Uh huh. And what do you want us to do then?”
“Your jobs. As you were always meant to. I won’t let you keep on the way we’ve been doing things. If you cross the line, we’ll take you down”.
“Easy Batman” Power Girl says, knowing the reason why Bruce was being so hard on them. It was because he was being hard on himself. He’d told her already that he blamed himself for how the GCPD had fallen. The things he allowed them to do. Ordered them to do.
He…he wanted to save them as much, if not more than he wanted to save himself.
“This is going to take some getting used to. I understand. But, believe me. It’s for the best”.
“Whatever blondie. I’m trusting you”.
“Thank you Lieutenant Montoya. Now, how about we get started? I’m pretty sure I hear a break-in a few blocks from here”. Bruce stiffens as he hears that, nodding his head in agreement as he looks back at the woman who continued to be his rock.
“Let's move”.
Gardenside Apartments, Apartment 23A, A Few Days Later
“I…I’m sorry”.
“Don’t be sorry,” Kara says, quickly reaching for a tissue as she scoops it up out of the box and then hands it off to the redheaded woman who takes it, dabbing the cloth at her eyes, trying to cover up the tears that hadn’t ceased.
Bruce, seated in the chair opposite the woman, looks away, unable to watch this as guilt pours into his mind, knowing that the reason she was crying was completely, utterly his fault. ‘I can never make it right. Never. This…this was stupid. Wrong’. Wrong was indeed the right word to use in this situation.
Here he was, in this apartment, amongst these people. Hell he was even seated in his chair.
Jim Gordon.
The man he’d ordered to be killed.
“You’re perfectly fine. Please…just….let it out”.
Kara moves in, wrapping her arm around Barbara Gordon Sr’s shoulders, holding her tightly as the woman moves into her, needing comfort at that moment. The tears kept coming, but she appeared to be more level headed at least, calm enough to speak. “It…it’s just so hard. No-not having him here. I…I…I feel like I can barely breathe most days. I’m only here still because the kids…they need me but…but I’m so close...so close to breaking”.
“Shhhhh…shhhhhh. It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re an excellent mother Barbara. I can see it. They’re okay. You’re doing an amazing job. Everyone…everyone needs help from time to time”. She looks up, making eye contact with Bruce so as to comfort him at the same time.
She knew exactly what he was going through.
“Mrs. Gordon”.
Bruce finally speaks and leans forward, crossing his arms over his legs and causing the still sniveling woman to look up, bringing herself back even more into a sense of composure. “J-just call me Barbara. Please. Or Babs. Everyone does”.
“Okay. Barbara…I…how…how is everything financially?”
“I…well…everything is fine” she says, seemingly happy to be able to talk about something, anything, that would just keep her mind going. “We get a stipend and death benefits from the city. I…I can stay here with the kids for as long as we want but…but…none of that really matters, does it? Jim…Jim isn’t here. I….I…how am I going to raise my babies without him? I-”.
He lunges forward, kneeling before the woman and taking her hands, startling her with the quick ease of his movements, the sincere emotion that went on behind him. He couldn’t contain himself, and while he took her hands, he looked her in the eye.
“Please…don’t worry about anything but your kids. Little Barbara and James. I…anything. Anything I can do, you just tell me. Their colleges…they’re paid for already. I…I can give you a monthly check. Pay for food, anything you want or need. Just…please…”
He looks away, speaking the words he needed to say, even if Mrs. Gordon wouldn’t understand why he was saying them.
“I’m so sorry”.
‘I didn’t even have the guts to pull the trigger myself’.
“M-Mr Wayne! I…I…that…that is so kind of you but…please…don’t. You didn’t do anything. I…I…I’m just happy that James had such an effect on you. I never even knew you two met but…please…I can’t accep-,”
“You don’t have a choice. I’m already doing it” he explains. “A trust has been set up in your name. As well as one for each of your children. I…” He didn’t know what else to say. There was nothing else he could say.
Not without telling them the truth, which is what they deserved.
But again, that would accomplish nothing, and he’d only be doing it to assuage his own guilt, his own demons. He wouldn’t be that selfish. He wouldn’t take the easy way out. He would bear this burden. For them.
“Mr. Wayne…I…”
“Please. Just Bruce”.
“I…I don’t know what to say. I-,”
“You don’t need to say anything”.
Kara was, as ever, his guardian angel, turning Barbara Gordon’s attention off of the kneeling man before her and onto her instead, smiling as she takes her hand in her own and squeezes. “We just want to help. Me and Bruce. We want to help this city and the people who deserve it. And maybe, just maybe-,”
“Mommy?”
“Babs, sweetie. I’m sorry” the older redhead says, extricating herself from the woman’s grasp and getting up from the couch, almost stumbling. Standing at the door, an exit to a bedroom, a little girl’s as could be seen through the gap, was little Barbara Gordon. She was no more than maybe six or seven years old, and as soon as Bruce sees her, rubbing her eyes and shaking the tiredness away, he almost feels as if his world had dropped away.
“Did we wake you?”
“No” the little girl coos out as her mother kneels down before her, watching as the little girl stutters and then begins to cry. “I had a nightmare”.
“Ohhh, sweetie” Barbara consoles, wiping her forehead as both Bruce and Kara rise up, moving towards them. “I’m so sorry. I-,”
“It was about daddy. He…he got shot and…and…”
She pushes her head into her hands, those tiny little hands, and keeps crying, all while leaving her mother at a loss as to what to do. It was clear, very clear, that the woman was exhausted, and didn’t know what else to say, what else to do.
She was at her limit, as she said, helpless to help her daughter…
“Hi”.
Luckily for her? Someone was there. Someone who understood what she was going through. When teary eyed little Barbara looked up, she came face to face with Bruce and Kara who had kneeled down to be near her, the blonde reaching out to rub her back. Bruce smiles, fighting through all his emotions to do the one thing he knew he absolutely needed to do.
Be there for her.
He was her Alfred Pennyworth. There was no taking that away. Not now, not ever. But he could do better for her than Alfred had done for him in the aftermath. He owed it to her and James, and he was damn well going to make sure she could cash that check.
Barbara wipes her eyes, trying to be polite.
“H-hi. I’m Barbara”.
“It’s nice to meet you Barbara. I’m Bruce Wayne”.
“O-ohh. I know who you are”.
“You do?”
She nods her head.
“Yeah. Y-you lost your daddy too. But also your mommy”. Leave it to a child to come right out with what needed to be said, the most clear and obvious thing. Bruce didn’t begrudge her that. Not at all. He smiles and nods his head, though it was in a sad way. Pain had brought them here. Some of it inflicted by others, most of it inflicted by him.
“I did. Yes”.
“Does…does it get better? Do you stop hurting?”
“No”.
He had to tell the truth. It didn’t. He wouldn’t lie. Not anymore than he needed to.
“But…other things do get better, and eventually? You have other good things in your life that make that pain a little less. But it never stops. Not really”.
“O-ohh”.
That wasn’t the answer she wanted, but it was the one she needed, and Bruce was going to give that to her. No matter what. “You’ll be okay though Barbara. I promise”. He didn’t have anything else to say, and luckily for him? Neither did Babs. She just threw herself forward, hugging the man, who didn’t hesitate to hug her back.
She cried and as she did, Bruce held her, doing his damndest to make what he did right.
But he wouldn’t ever be able to. Not really.