Work Text:
Barbara Gordon sat in the centre of her Clock Tower. Beside her, the young Robin leaned against the desk, analysing the video feeds across the monitors.
“She’s ahead of schedule,” Tim noted.
“She’s not using her usual checkpoints,” Barbara replied, her fingers flying over the keys to redirect a traffic camera. “She’s following the old Spoiler route.”
A figure swung into the room through the window. Neither Barbara nor Tim turned to look; the silent approach was entirely familiar to both of them.
Spoiler stepped into the warm glow of the computer screens. The mostly purple costume she wore caught the light, the heavy fabric draped over her shoulders and pooling down her back. The only detail separate from the Spoiler of old was the face mask, which featured a bold stitch line over the mouth piece.
Tim offered his mug toward the vigilante. “You made record time. Bruce is still tying up loose ends with the gangs, if you want to drop in.”
The figure threw back the purple hood and peeled off the mask, shaking her dark hair free. Cassandra Cain looked down at the offering, changed her mind, and took the mug from his hand.
A faint smile touched Tim’s face. When she had first shown up at the cave a month ago with the ears sheared off her mask and wearing Stephanie’s signature colour, the silence in the room had been deafening. There had been heavy silences, and concerns about the trauma left in the wake of their loss. But the grief had settled into a routine, and the routine had become reality. The name Spoiler didn’t belong to a memory anymore; it belonged to the shadow currently sipping her coffee.
Cassandra set the mug down and pulled the stitched mask back over her face. She gave a single, sharp nod, the closest she ever came to a laugh, and pulled the purple hood back over her head to cast her features into shadow once more.
“Oracle, keep the channel open,” Cassandra said, and for a moment, the familiar tease in her voice sounded startlingly like Stephanie. “I’m heading out to spoil Batman’s fun.”
“Always, Spoiler,” Barbara replied.
Cassandra slipped through the window frame as silently as she came, and vanished into the Gotham night, the purple cloak trailing behind her like a bruise against the city skyline.
END.