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Damian is furious. In the early years, he'd been Batman's shadow, the one who came after him, steel and grey. Watch out, the people warned each other, Batman and his Shadow are here.
When Damian grew out of it, when he met Jon and Lian, he'd chosen a new name. Nyx. It wasn't much, and he'd barely changed his uniform, but it was his. A base in New York, he'd only come back to scream at Bruce when he heard he'd taken a ward in.
Never, in his life, was Damian prepared for Dick Grayson.
Loud, bright, and facetious, he'd washed away Batman and Shadow like a bad dream. Now the people said Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo in something approaching awe, none of the hushed voices and side eyes like had been rampant when Damian was a sidekick.
Dick was - Dick was something else entirely.
Prodigal acrobat, orphan, and natural vigilante. He'd be the greatest of them all, Damian knew. Red, green, and yellow. Audacious and kind. Being around him make Damian's chest hurt.
Then he'd come stumbling back, one night. "Red Hood," he'd said. "She wants to kill her dad." The story had come tumbling out. He'd found her staking Arthur Brown out as a civillian, had asked, voice carefully cheerful, 'Are you quite alright?'
He'd been in disguise, then, having snuck out of the Manor. With a wig in place and his well practiced smile, Red Hood had said, "Go home, kid."
"Why?"
"You don't need to be involved." She had given him a cautious glance, deemed him non threatening, and went back to her work. Gothamite kids were audacious enough they regularly approached her to be a nuisance.
"What are you doing? Are you a vigilante?" She'd stiffened.
"No."
In Dick's recount, he'd told them, voice mild and expression even as he'd carefully watched their reactions. "She'd told me she was getting the world rid of an evil man. He was her dad."
"Do you know who it was?"
Dick said, "Arthur Brown."
Damian's world had come falling apart.
They'd confirmed it first. Checked, double checked, triple checked. Cass had gone grave digging. Her casket was empty.
Without telling them of anything, she'd gone to confront her. Damian had read her debrief afterwards, short, curt, to the point. They'd fought, she recounted. Stephanie was faster, stronger, had more technique. Their fight had been interrupted by a nearby gun shootout. Batgirl had gone on to save lives. Red Hood retreated.
Now, on a rooftop, an unplanned intervention.
Stephanie, with her close shaven blonde hair and her scars, red, raw, and angry. They puckered out of he face, stark. What disquieted him the most wasn't her appearance, though. It was the way she carried herself.
Lethality and anger. He'd always known she carried that inside of her.
She'd held a gun to his face, arm steady. She'd smiled, razor sharp and acidic. "Nyx," she greeted.
Damian didn't smile back. He crossed her arms instead, heart panging, said, "Murder isn't right, Stephanie." Straight-forward and to the point, he was uncertain of their relationship, now. How could you reconcile your sister figure, murdered, now revived with kills under her belt?
He could forgive her for this, he knew. They all could. Steph deserved a second chance - she deserved all the second chances. She just had to stop killing people.
"Not gonna stake your claim over Robin?"
Foolishly, Damian still trusted Stephanie. "Would you hurt him?"
Stephanie hummed, the gun still in her hand, tap tap tapping against her palm. She turned it around, metal gleaming, scent hidden away and muted. "Do I need to?"
Damian stiffened.
"Why are you doing this?"
And that was the opening she'd been waiting for. Spreading out her arms slightly, she took a step towards him, as if welcoming an audience. Cass is nearby, Damian thought dazedly. And thank god she was - she'd want to hear this, see this in person. She loved Stephanie.
"It's because of you," she snapped. Damian didn't flinch back. He couldn't afford to. "It's because of everyone - all the vigilantes! All Batman did was preach about the mission - look where that's got us."
Furious and yet her face was cold, unmoving. Damian's comm stayed silent in his ear. His heart ached.
"Is this -" he swallowed, throat bobbing. "We tried, Steph." His voice broke despite his best efforts. They really had tried. Duke had joined in the search, had stepped away from his team for weeks as they searched for Stephanie all over. They'd never found her.
Bruce was in space. Cass was away. Tim was recovering from being shot in the spine. Damian and Duke had searched high and low, Bertenelli had joined in, too.
They'd only found her when she was a corpse, mangled and bloodied.
Steph's smile dropped. "Great job on that," she said.
"Even - even Duke had tried, Steph. We're - I'm sorry, but you don't have to do this," he said, a pleading note in his tone. He'd never done that before, but for Steph he'd try. He stepped forward, noted how Stephanie shifted defensively, and forced himself to still.
"Of course I have to," she said calmly, warily. "Spoiler couldn't save anyone, she let everythng go. And none of you were enough." She seemed to work herself up as she kept talking, like she'd been keeping this locked in her chest her whole life. Damian remembered her telling him, one night, I dreamed of Batman's silhouette against the Moon.
"None of you helped when anyone ever needed it!"
Distantly, Damian knew Cass was flinching back from where she was hiding.
"Face it. Vigilantes aren't enough, they'd never been. Arthur killed my mum, you know?"
At Damian's silence, Steph's mouth twisted, ugly. "Did you know that? Or did you brush it away? Oh, little Stephie's sick." Her voice turned nasally as she mocked herself, self loathing in every word. "She couldn't handle the pressure, just sit still and wait for her to come home."
Heart in his throat, Damian knew that was exactly what had happened. Crystal Brown had been a drug addict for the longest time, she'd only started improving towards the end, when Stephanie had been murdered.
"Arthur killed my mum, Damian!" Stephanie shouted. Damian stood there, frozen, sound ringing in his ears. "How could you not have stopped him! How many times can one man break out of prison!"
Cass landed beside them, light on her feet. Stephanie only directed her gaze towards Cass, still raging. She said, "How many did you let die, Batgirl?"
Cassandra stared back solemnly. Her body was tense.
Stephanie raised her voice. "What about you, Aperture, was it?" Tim remained silent in Damian's ear. "All that fancy tech - and what? You couldn't even be bothered to turn on a screen?"
"Enough, Hood," Cass said. Her body was loose. She didn't attack, not yet. Damian watched this happen, and yet he could not say a word.
Stephanie only smiled, slow and sick. "What are you gonna do to make me stop, Batgirl?" she asked, mocking.
"I mean - none of you could even catch my baby."
Incident Number UD687
Filed by: SNAPSHOT
Events:
XX/XX/XXXX Arthur Brown [see: Arthur Brown] carried out a prison break with inmates [see: Individuals Section]. Snapshot [see: Timothy Jackson Drake] and Batgirl [see: Cassandra Cain] responded and arrived at scene 10 minutes after call, where Spoiler was negotiating with Arthur Brown to release a baby. [see: Stephanie Brown's Baby (Unnamed) in Stephanie Brown's Folder].
Spoiler deemed herself unable to defuse situation due to impairments [see: Childbirth and Recovery in Stephanie Brown's Folder]. Arthur Brown threw Unnamed Baby into air. Batgirl, Snapshot, and Spoiler dove after Unnamed Baby. Unnamed Baby did not survive. Arthur Brown was subdued sustaining injuries [see: Injuries Section] and returned back to prison.
Individuals:
.
.
.
End of Report.
Incident Number UD687 other Reports see BATGIRL Reports.
Due to Other Circumstances, SPOILER did not have a Report.