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He will come to her, not groveling, but worried and tired.
Rip Hunter will be older than all the years he’s lived when he will meet Cassandra Cain and she will feel so discouraged and bad that a young man can so easily be seen through to his skin and bones.
When he will give her the year, he will make it clear, “You must train someone of your choosing to become an even greater hero than you remember them to be. The first person who just popped into your mind? It’s them. You have to do it.”
She will agree, because she will have come to appreciate destiny by that time in her life.
Cass’ chosen champion will have already been known as she will come to the time travel pod.
Her indominable will is going to be unyielding even when Rip tries one last time to let her back out.
“It’s a thankless task,” he will remind her.
And Cass will nod and continue.
No matter the time or the mission, being a hero always will be a thankless task.
She really hadn’t been a Titan for that long.
Argent’s ragtag group brought together by their shared origins in the H’San Natall had sprung up and withered out in the curiously cold environment of superheroes.
As loathed as she might have been to admit it when among her friends, Ray leaving them had been the kiss of death to their Titans.
In a world after even Batman had lost a Robin, teen superheroes without some sort of veteran supervision were not so kindly accepted.
Toni, plain Toni with her silver skin and killer style, sat in a Sundollar without her costume at the ready. She just drank coffee and watched the news of other – real – superheroes’ exploits until it made her almost sick.
Then she gathered her things and started on her way home when someone stepped up behind her.
“I can train heroes,” a halting voice called.
Surprised, Toni turned to face the person.
They were dressed all in black, looking confidently into Toni’s eyes.
Fresh from having been turned down for such a thing in Gotham, Toni glared expectantly back. “Yeah?” she asked as she crossed her arms.
The mysterious woman in black unbuttoned her coat and revealed a Bat emblem emblazoned across her chest.
“I can train heroes,” the woman repeated as Toni’s mouth dropped open. “I want to train you.”
Heart pounding, Toni hardly wasted any time at all before her answer was leaving her lips.
“Yes! Omigawd yes!”
The rules were simple enough.
They met when the woman with the Bat said to meet. They practiced without Toni using her powers. And until she was ready, Toni did not go out as a superhero.
However, the rules were also a complete farce.
She was sure of it.
The way her instructor moved, the speed at which she reacted to any of Toni’s attacks. They were inhumanly strong and inhumanly powerful.
While she might not have ever proclaimed to be the strongest or best superhero to have existed, Toni was proud of her abilities. She was good when she had been with the Titans, and she’d only improved over time.
It made no sense for her to be dropped on her chin after a simple lunge like a child.
And yet that was exactly what her trainer did to her without so much as blinking.
Ramming into the asphalt, Toni let out a gargled growl before arching back, flinging her arms out without even thinking.
“I’ve had enough of this!” she screeched before she even realized what she was doing.
Her eyes widened as she watched the plasma daggers fly from her arch, all aimed for the Bat lady.
The mysterious Bat moved smoothly, one step leading into another like a dance, and dodged every blast. Toni gasped in shock both at her own action and at the finesse of the non-powered hero.
The woman stopped and stood over Toni.
“I am so sorry,” Toni whimpered.
“You have not had enough,” the trainer assured her with a smile and offered a hand.
Feeling her chin wobble, Toni accepted it. “I.. thank you,” she replied before coming a bit more to her senses. Once on her feet she crossed her arm and shrugged. “Though, you kinda deserved that.”
Her trainer just grinned back.
She felt numbed to her own suspicions at that point.
The undercurrent of lies and fortune had been present for so long in her life that Toni barely blinked anymore. Or at least that had been the case before she decided being a superhero had been all she really wanted since the very day she had seen the Teen Titans save her mall.
More than costumes or powers or fame, Toni felt something stirring and honest in the Titans that day. Something she had never seen even in the love and care of her parents.
After training that night, Toni sat beside her always mysterious teacher.
“Can you be a hero if you love people you know are bad?” she asked. “Because… I don’t want to waste your time if I can’t be…”
She trailed off, already perceiving the other woman’s disappointment and frustration.
As always, Toni’s teacher was silent. But she shifted uncomfortably.
It was not as simple of a subject for her either, it seemed.
“The worst people do evil things,” she answered at last. “And good people can do just as bad. But people can’t be all evil.” She looked meaningfully to Toni. “My father… I felt him love me. I was hit and hurt and he was very bad. He killed people. But he loved me.” She looked at her hands. “I still love him, too.” Lower, “Still don’t like to say it.”
And for the first time in all their training, Toni felt there was something stronger in her teacher than any hit she had given to a punching bag.
“I need to confront them. Don’t I?” she asked. “My parents. If they’re doing something bad. Even if I don’t know what it is.”
The Bat smiled softly. “Someday. Not today. Not yet.”
It had been just like every other day when she went shopping. Toni expected nothing really out of the ordinary or special.
Though, like most heroes, she supposed her definition of normal could have used some tweaking. Saving the store she was shopping at from masked robbers hardly seemed like a blip on her radar.
The unordinary part was being approached by the Flash right afterward, and being offered a spot on the team of titans that was newly forming. The very team of people who had changed her entire life in one afternoon so many years beforehand.
It was also unordinary for the Flash to receive a hug from all of this, but he absolutely received one all the same.
She nearly blasted her way out of the mall from pure elation when, as always, her teacher was outside waiting on her.
It was as if the Bat always knew.
“I’m going to be a Titan again!” she excitedly informed her.
Teacher smiled. “I know,” she said. “Good things are coming your way, Argent. You are like silver. You can be trained to perfection.”
The words alone felt like a direct boost to Toni’s ego. “What about you?”
“I’m just getting started,” the Bat said with a nod to the alley.
Toni followed the not and saw for herself what looked like a young – younger than even Toni herself – homeless girl stood watching from afar. The girl turned and ran.
Toni blinked in surprise. “Hey, she looked kinda like–”
When Toni turned, her teacher was gone.
She will emerge from the time loop older than the second before when she enters.
Only by months but Ri will always be able to tell.
He will always be sensitive to these temporal shifts of the people around him. It will be a hard lesson learned from his father before him.
And he will have had years of practice with it before he will meet Cassandra Cain in person.
“She’s going to be that much more confidence thanks to you,” he will say. “I can send you to your home now if–”
“No,” she will demand. “Another. Another student.”
And Rip will have expected as much.
It will be a lonely fate, the secret trainer of heroes. But greatness will always come with a price so many do not see.