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As a Batgirl, Cass should feel comfortable in Crime Alley by now. Her time away from Gotham has shaken her confidence and her connections more than she wants to admit. She’ll at least need backup.
Cass mentally runs through her list of allies who would be helpful in this situation. There aren't that many. Of the people who know Crime Alley well enough to be useful Dick is busy in Bludhaven, Tim and Steph are on a mission of their own, and Barbara and Helena are out with the Birds of Prey…
Fuck.
There is one more person Cass can ask.
Breaking into his current base is easy. He’s working on some paper, guns on a counter nearby. Quietly stealing across the room and placing herself behind him is even easier. He really needs to strengthen his security measures.
“Boo.”
Jason’s body screams with fear as it jumps, and that single second is enough for her to have the upper hand. In two more seconds he’s on the ground, tied with a piece of rope from his own table.
In hindsight, this was probably a rude way to ask for help, but she doesn’t have time to fight fair or try to convince him to take her seriously. He doesn’t look too upset when he realizes it’s Cass who’s attacked him.
“I need to find someone in Crime Alley.”
Jason is unenthused. “You want me to help you. After scaring me and tying me up.”
At least he admits to being scared. That alone makes Cass smile for a moment before she remembers the gravity of the situation. “I need your help. And if you fuck with me I’ll do worse.”
Jason groans, and Cass can hear him mumble “I hate Bats” under his breath. “Fine. Can you let me out now?”
She does, and he grumbles exaggeratedly as he shakes himself out. There are twinges of pain Cass hadn’t clocked before, and she mentally notes to be more mindful of those points if she has to attack him again.
“What do I get out of this, by the way?”
Cass scowls. This was why she had tied him up first. “I don’t tie you up again or scare away your goons. Fair?”
“You owe me one,” Jason counters.
Cass doesn’t have time for this. “Fine,” she says, and surprise flits across Jason’s face for a moment.
He doesn’t say anything in response, and heads to the wall holding the rest of his weapons. The pile of guns on the counter and the others on the wall go completely ignored as he quickly evaluates and only packs less-lethal options. He nods at Cass, and gestures for her to lead the way.
“What is the mission, anyway?” Jason asks as they near Crime Alley.
“Duke. Signal,” Cass adds at Jason’s confusion. “He was on mission undercover and something was weird on his last check-in…”
“…And you had a bad feeling,” Jason says, finishing the thought. He understood. Maybe she should have just asked him for help more normally.
Cass clears her throat. “He was trying to investigate one of Scarecrow’s suppliers.”
“Scarecrow, huh? Did he say anything else?” Cass shakes her head. Jason mirrors the action, almost unconsciously. “Where do you wanna start?”
“Stop.” Cassandra’s voice is strong enough to stop Jason on its own, but she’s moved to put herself physically between him and the goon he was questioning just in case.
There’s a flash of cruelty in Jason’s eyes she would never want to claim. He stands down regardless.
“Fine. ‘S not like he can tell us much more, anyway. I know where Duke is.”
The trip is short. This time they don’t talk. There isn’t anything to say.
Peeking over the edge of the roof the goon led them to reminds Cass of scouting back when she was first starting out as Batgirl. Sure, the goons below wouldn’t see her even if she was doing backflips, but this has a better vantage point. The position is as familiar as the hundreds of defense drills Batman made her do well after she had more than proved herself. She wonders if Robin ever did either as Jason hunkers down beside her.
The patterns below are familiar, too. Enough that she can sense danger, something being wrong like the check-in from Duke that brought her here.
“A trap,” Jason says right as it dawns on Cass. “They’re expecting you.”
“I’m not leaving him there.” Cass rises to go, but Jason pulls her back down. It surprises her enough that she doesn’t resist it.
“I know.”
Everything is still for a moment.
Everything aside from Jason’s face as his mind works through something.
“I’m guessing since you asked me for help, there’s no one else to call for backup?” He doesn’t even need to see Cass nod. She can’t tell if the feeling in her gut is jealousy or nerves. “I have a plan.”
“No killing,” She re-emphasizes, and to her relief Jason rolls his eyes but doesn’t fight her on that.
He does argue when she points out all the flaws in his first plan, but by the time they reach a third version they’re finally in agreement.
The plan goes perfectly. Well, as perfectly as it could have. Duke is all right, at least, other than a mild concussion. It’s better than Cass was expecting, but her relief had blinded her just enough for one of the goons who captured Duke to gain an advantage.
Jason’s distraction worked, though, so Cass only had to deal with that one guy. It just left an annoying gash in Cass’s side.
The wound makes getting Duke out a little more difficult. She leans into the pain to steady him as she surveys the room. The rest of the goons are still alive even though they’re incapacitated. All Cass has to do is get Duke out of here.
She should be able to do this. She’s worked through worse pain. She could fight another round of men right now but for some reason lifting Duke seems impossible. Her eyes are wet. Duke is saying something, concerned, but her vision is blurring and turning sound into words feels like pushing through wet sand. Something else is wrong.
There’s pressure against her side, and her instincts tell her to strike back before she remembers Duke. He’s feeling better enough to support her, but she’s supposed to be supporting him. Something is wrong. She and Jason missed something. Cass drags together a list of her symptoms even as her brain fights her.
Poison.
Which type?
It comes to her right as she fades from consciousness, and she hopes the name leaving her lips actually made it out before everything disappears.
She wakes up in the Batcave with a headache trying to break her skull in two. Someone in her periphery is apologetic and a moment later the lights dim. It helps. Cass keeps a hand over her eyes to shade them a bit more as she sits up.
“You stayed,” she states as her vision and hearing adjust enough to recognize Jason. From what she’s heard, he rarely comes near the cave.
He shrugs, forcing nonchalance. If Cass was someone else she might have believed him, but she can easily read the tension - discomfort? - in his frame. “I don’t think any other Bat owes me a favor, Batgirl, and those are pretty valuable. If you died then I would have done all that saving for nothing.” The discomfort clicks in his jaw, and Cass sees it’s high enough that she wouldn’t be the only one to notice if anyone else was around.
Someone else should be around.
“Where’s Duke?” Cass asks, suddenly nervous. Did her mistake, her oversight, put him at risk? If it was more than just a concussion he could have been in serious danger.
“Duke is okay.” Jason seems the barest bit more comfortable as he approaches Cass’s bed and grabs a water bottle from the table next to her. He opens the bottle and hands it to Cass, as if water has the ability to calm her down.
Jason explains that Cass had told them the correct poison name, and even though she had passed out they were able to make a remedy that brought her back just enough for her to get to the cave with minimal support. She had collapsed again right as they arrived, but by then there was a proper antidote waiting. From the bruises Cass can feel blooming on her skin, it’s probably better that she can’t remember the way home. “We probably looked ridiculous,” Jason says, agreeing with her line of thought.
Duke really was okay, and just resting in his room since the antidote’s full effects took a while, according to Jason. Cass still needed to rest for a few more hours just in case, according to the Batcomputer, but it had already been set up to send Duke a signal in the event that she woke up.
“Computer’s also been recording the whole time I’ve been here, if you were worried about that, but I’m sure you would beat me up in your sleep if I tried to mess with any of Batman’s things.”
Cass smirks. Jason’s right, of course. Even though she can still feel remnants of the poison’s effects she’s sure it wouldn’t be a difficult fight.
Maybe it’s worth trying again.
“They could be your things, too. You still have a room. In the manor. You could come back whenever you wanted to.”
“You know that isn’t true.”
“You know that it is. Stupid.” The insult shakes some of Jason’s discomfort free, and even though he doesn’t say another word as he sits back down, Cass can tell he’s relaxed just a little bit more.
Maybe he could come back. Eventually.
“You really are Batman’s protégée, Cass,” is the last thing she hears him say before he leaves, just in time to miss her father’s return.