Chapter Text
Gotham was an awful place. A fact of life for most people living there.
It was dank and gross and had an evil cannibalistic crocodile man that lived in the sewers. A person couldn't turn a corner on the bad side of town without seeing something illegal or unethical.
Stephanie Brown knew all about the shithole where she lived, she was aware of every disgusting nook and cranny of the place. Hell, she had personally seen a rat the size of a small dog in a subway station near her house. Even knowing all this, she embraced it, choosing to spend her time wandering the streets of the most crime-ridden city in America.
Granted, it wasn't the safest thing for an eleven-year-old girl to be doing, but Stephanie prided herself on her street smarts. She had three rules for running around the back alleys of Gotham.
The first was don't stay out past dark, this one was pretty simple. Just get home before the streetlights turn on.
The second was never to talk to strangers. Stephanie wasn't some sheltered idiot that was going to follow some random guy for the promises of candy.
The third, and the most important rule was never and I repeat NEVER run towards someone screaming for help, in fact, run the other way. Dealing with criminal activity is batman's job, and getting murdered by one of Gotham's crazies isn't helping anyone.
Her rules had worked so far, and honestly, Gotham wasn't as terrible as some people made it out to be, or at least it was better than being home alone all the time. She hadn't even been murdered once! that's a win in her books. Things were going well for Stephanie Brown.
Or at least it was like that until the day every single one of her rules got broken in one go.
But it wasn't really her fault, at least not most of it. She wasn't even the person who broke that last one.
It was a beautiful day in Gotham, an uncommon occurrence for the city that rained 90% of the time and snowed the other 10%. Unfortunately for the youth of Gotham, it fell on a school day, which meant Stephanie was stuck in Math class listening to the bland drone of Mr. Davies' voice as he attempted to teach the class-long division.
Stephanie could see the day slipping away through the window as the clock ticked by. The last period of the day always moved the slowest. She couldn't wait to be free from this hellish prison known as Gotham’s public education system.
As soon as the bell rang she dashed out the exit and breathed in the sweet sweet smell of inner-city Gotham, a mix of smog, cigarettes, and gasoline. It may have been disgusting, but to Stephanie, it smelled like freedom. The world was her oyster. Well, maybe not the world, but the city sure was. And Stephanie had a plan. One that involved ice cream and sunburn and a shit ton of stairs. She practically sprinted home, ducking through the familiar streets until she arrived at the old duplex her family lived.
When Stephanie arrived, the house was empty, a fact that didn't surprise her in the slightest. Her mother was probably at the diner where she worked, it wasn't a great job, but it paid the bills. As for her father, he was spending some time behind bars. A well-deserved punishment for the shitty two-bit Riddler copycat. He had started calling himself “Cluemaster”, Stephanie thought that if he was going to be a criminal he should have at least chosen a less stupid name. The name alone should have been the basis for imprisonment.
She tossed her backpack haphazardly onto the floor and made her way to her room checking the time as she passed the clock on the wall. It was almost 4:30, which gave her about 4 hours till the sun went down. She had plenty of time to execute her plan. After changing out of her school clothes and putting her blond hair into a ponytail, she was back out the door. Making sure to lock it behind her.
Her first stop was for the ice cream. The shop she went to was a hole-in-the-wall place that Stephanie was pretty sure was just a front for the Russian mob, but they had good ice cream, so she really didn't care. She took her ice cream from the huge tatted-up Russian guy at the counter, paying with her saved-up change. She didn't stop and instead chose to eat it as she walked, making her way toward the highrise buildings that were starting to be constructed. These monster buildings were starting to pop up all around Gotham, even in a shitty neighborhood like Stephanie’s.
The building she had her sights on was an almost completed construction building. When construction finishes it's going to be the tallest building in the surrounding area, even as tall as some of the ones downtown. The construction workers had been given leave for the day due to an incident that had been on the news that morning. Something about a disgruntled employee poisoning the water supply, normal Gotham stuff, nobody even died.
So the building sat almost abandoned except for a few guards at the front entrance. And where some saw an unfortunate incident, Stephanie saw an opportunity. It would be an office building when it was done, but just for today, it would be Stephanie Brown's personal playground. She was going to climb it. Honestly, in hindsight, it wasn't her finest idea, but she had always been the type to take the bull by its horns. And this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It really wasn't even her fault. The security was so lax that it was almost like they wanted people to break in. All Stephanie had to do was duck down and wait till the guards turned their heads for her to slip inside the construction zone. She stared up at the building and couldn't stop herself from giggling as the door swung open without a problem. Once inside, the stairwell was easy enough for her to find, and so, she began her ascent to the top.
This is where she might have made a miscalculation.
She had climbed about five flights of stairs when she realized she underestimated how many flights she would need to go up, as well as overestimated her own endurance. The higher she climbed the slower she went until she had to basically drag herself up the last few flights. Sometimes she would take a break to look around whatever floor she found herself on, but then it was right back to climbing.
By the time she made it to the top her legs wobbled and she was gulping for air like a fish out of water. Stephanie staggered up the last few steps and made her way toward the edge. Once she caught a glimpse of the view she knew it had all been worth it. Stopping at the glass, she looked out over the Gotham's skyline. From this height, she could see the whole city moving below her. It looked cleaner from up high, she couldn't make out the filth that covered the streets, or the poverty and crime, you couldn't even see the dog-sized rats! She sat down over the edge and just stared. It was beautiful.
The sky was like a watercolor painting of reds and oranges and purples of the sunset. It coated the city in its multi-colored light. Stephanie's legs hurt, and her throat was dry but honestly, the glowing sunset was just too pretty a picture for her to care.
Wait?
The sunset? Sun…set? Stephanie felt her heart instantly leap into her throat. What time was it? She didn't have any way to check, but looking over the sky she saw the sun gently dipping into the horizon. Her heart began pounding in her chest. As she did the math, her face grew pale. It would take at least 45 minutes to climb down all of those stairs, and another 30 minutes to get back home. By the time she was walking home, it would be completely dark. She had broken rule number one. The dread of that fact began to settle in the pit of her stomach.
Stephanie shook her head and took a deep breath. She calmed herself down. She would just need to be super-duper careful getting back home. No big deal. Rising from the ground she brushed the dust off her shorts the best she could and made her way back to the staircase. Taking one last look over the skyline, she made sure to burn the picture into her mind. Then she began the climb down.
Fortunately for Stephanie, getting down the stairs was a lot easier than getting up them. But still, by the time she slipped past the guards for the second time, night had fallen on Gotham. And when night fell, the costumed crazies came out to play. Stephanie had no desire to show up on the back of a milk carton, or be found dead in a ditch somewhere, so she decided to stick to well-lit areas that she knew well.
The street lights in the neighborhood where she lived had a tendency to flicker. Usually, it didn't bother her much, it's something easy to ignore when you're safe inside, but right about now Stephanie had some strong words for the people who were in charge of the city's infrastructure. Every time the lights flicked she felt the urge to jump out of her own skin. The shadows cast on nearby buildings turned themselves into monsters that were just out of her sight.
Stephanie thought about her mom. She wondered how long it would take her to even realize she was missing? A new kid disappeared every other day in Gotham. Stephanie doubted that the cops would look for the poor daughter of a D-list supervillain very hard. Despite her bravado, Stephanie doubted many people would care at all. Her mom would be sad of course, but her dad would probably be happy she was gone. She had a few friends, but they weren't very close so she doubted she would be much more than a warning of what not to do. Stephanie felt a lump in her throat as she pushed back tears. She wasn't a little kid who was going to cry about being scared of the dark. It was her fault for breaking the rules anyway, and as her dad would always say, she had made her bed and now she needed to lay in it.
She had been walking for about 10 minutes when she first noticed the man walking behind her on the sidewalk. The man kept his distance, not getting close enough for her to get a good look. All she could see was that he was tall, with big hands and feet. He also walked with a slight limp. Oh, and he was almost certainly following her. She had already made 4 left turns to try and shake the guy, with hopes that they might have just been walking in the same direction. He followed behind her at a steady pace, not seeming to care that he was walking around in circles. Fear coursed through her body as thoughts ran through her head. She made her way around another corner and burst into a full sprint.
Despite the fact that she was already exhausted, Stephanie had never run faster in all her eleven years of life. However, when she turned to look back she saw that the man had broken into a sprint after her. His stride was long and heavy, and he moved surprisingly fast for a man of his height. He had completely lost his limp. Fear gripped her as he started to catch up. Stephanie scanned her surroundings wildly, the only things she could hear were the pounding of footsteps against concrete and her own labored breathing.
Thinking quickly she ducked into a nearby alleyway. Given the man's size and velocity, he almost ran into a wall trying to change direction. The alley twisted and turned, branching in unfamiliar directions. Stephanie couldn’t keep track of the way she had come, solely focused on shaking the large scary man that was now hot on her heels. She turned one last corner, then came to a stop, staring at the dead-end in front of her. She looked back to see the man behind her, closing the exit. Stephanie stumbled backward, almost tripping as she hit the brick wall. The man stopped when he saw it, chuckling to himself in some messed-up satisfaction. She could see his face now, his thin lips contorting into a sick grin. Pure adrenaline ran through her blood as she realized, this is where she would die. In some disgusting back alley, surrounded by trash, killed by an ugly bastard before her twelfth birthday. Tears welled in her eyes, and she did the only thing she could.
"HELP, HELP PLEASE., SOMEBODY," her voice broke through the night, strained from exhaustion. She knew it was futile, the buildings on either side of her all looked condemned or abandoned. The man in front of her didn't say anything, just chuckled more. Her eyes drifted from his face to his hands. Gripped in his large fist was something long and sharp, it was too dark to see for sure, but Stephanie was almost certain it was a knife. Her next scream died in her throat, turning into more of a pathetic whimper as he stepped closer. She pushed her back further into the wall and closed her eyes tightly, covering her face with her arms, and waited for the first strike.
A loud thump rang out in the dark, followed by a resounding silence, but the blow she was expecting never came. Carefully, Stephanie peeked through her arms, only to see something she couldn't expect. The man was on the ground, face down, and standing over him like an angel of death was a girl about Stephanie's age.
The girl's face was blank as she stared down at the man but her posture held some kind of satisfaction. Then she looked up at Stephanie. She had large dark almond eyes that could see straight into her soul. A shiver ran through her like an electric current when their eyes met.
Stephanie looked back down at the man who was just chasing her, seeing blood slowly pool out of his crushed nose. He was out cold. She couldn't tell exactly what happened, but she was pretty sure that this girl had just saved her life. Relief seeped into her body as she took deep shaky breaths. The other girl just watched her with piercing eyes. In most situations, such a strong gaze would have made Stephanie uncomfortable, but now she found it oddly comforting. Pushing herself off of the wall Stephanie carefully skirted around the man lying across the alley. She had half a mind to spit on the guy, but she thought that might be overkill. Seeing as though his face was crushed into the floor. Then Stephanie looked back to her savior, who was still staring at her intensely.
"Thank you, I really didn't feel like dying, yanno?" She said, trying to hide the shake in her voice with a chuckle. The girl didn't say anything, she just stood there for a second then slowly nodded her head. Stephanie looked back down the dark alley where she had come from. With her hands still shaking from adrenaline, she pointed in the direction of the exit.
"Can we maybe go somewhere else? This place is kinda disgusting." She asked the girl. Those dark eyes inspected her as she moved and spoke. Again, she didn't respond, but she turned and started leading the way out of the alley. Her movements were smooth and graceful, like running water. Stephanie followed along after her, not bothering to look back. Her legs still shook as she walked. If the other girl was like running water, she probably looked like a leaky tap. When they reached the street, Stephanie felt so happy she could cry. Suddenly the flickering street light didn't seem so bad.
Free from the alley, Stephanie finally got a good look at the girl who had just saved her life. She looked around Stephanie’s age, maybe a little older. Her black hair fell messily around her face and didn't quite touch her shoulders. She was dressed head to toe in crisp white clothes. When Stephanie looked closer though, she could see the stains and dirt that covered her whole body. Stephanie couldn't really judge anybody's personal hygiene at the moment though, her little adventure had left her covered in dirt, dust, and sweat.
She was thin, and her hair looked like it hadn't been washed in a while. Stephanie couldn't help but want to give her something, especially with those sad piercing eyes. Plus she had just saved Stephanie's life. The two girls just stared at each other for a long moment. And then the other girl turned and started walking away from her. For a split second, Stephanie thought about her rules. Don't talk to strangers, a small part of her brain whispers. But the rest screamed that she didn't want to be alone. And well, Stephanie had never been very good at impulse control.
"Wait a sec!" She called, grabbing for the other girl's wrist. The other girl moved fast, spinning around and pulling her hand out of Stephanie's reach. Deep black eyes met startled blue ones. She still didn't say anything, just looking at her for an explanation. Stephanie gulped and wondered if she was making another bad decision.
"Are you hungry? I have food at my house if you want to come with me?" She blurted out. The other girl still didn't respond, and Stephanie wondered for a second if she could understand. Then the girl's stomach let out a loud rumble. Stephanie tried and failed to stifle a giggle.
"Is that a yes? Do you want to come with me?" She asked, smiling at the other girl. She could barely make it out, but she swore she saw the tips of the other girl’s ears go pink with embarrassment. The other girl simply nodded at Stephanie, her black hair bouncing slightly as she did so.
Stephanie led the way, with the two girls walking side by side in complete silence. She figured it would be better than having a one-sided conversation because she was fairly certain the other girl couldn't talk or at least didn't want to. Fortunately, they didn't run into any more trouble for the rest of the way, making it home without further incident. Once they reached the front door of Stephanie's house, she fished the key out of her pocket and let them both inside.
Her mother still wasn't home from work, so Stephanie didn't need to worry about having to explain to her mom why she was so dirty, or why she brought home a strange girl who didn't talk. She flicked on the lights and made her way to the kitchen. Her guest stood near the doorway and looked around the space in a methodical manner.
"My name is Stephanie, by the way," she said, as she began to rummage through the cabinets,
"Do you have a name?" Stephanie questioned, not really expecting a response. She looked over at the other girl, seeing her brow furrowed in concentration as she opened her mouth. The first attempt came out as something Stephanie couldn't quite hear, more air than anything. The second came out a lot clearer.
"-has-aa" she tried, looking slightly frustrated by the lack of clarity. Stephanie leaned closer, turning her head slightly. The other girl took a deep breath.
"Ca-hsaan-dra"
"Cassandra?" Stephanie asked. The other girl's eyes widened slightly and she nodded her head up and down. Stephanie couldn't help but smile at her.
"It's nice to meet you, Cassandra. Now, you want something to eat?"