Chapter Text
the girl glanced at him as he enters, eyes too wide, looking up at him through her eyelashes. it is hard to explain but it looks like she wants something, but not in a 'desire' way. she raises her eyes to the ceiling and tilts her head to the side. it takes him a few moments to realise that she wasn't simply avoiding eye contact but bearing her neck.
At his gasp she looks at him, he takes on a calming voice, “it's ok we aren't going to hurt you, we just want to talk”.
She narrows her eyes and almost seemed to slump into herself in response. she is carefully watching him out through her eyelashes.
“OK... can... you start with your name?”
…
“do... you know where you are?”
…
“how about, who you work for?”
…
“can you... tell us... where you learned to fight so well?”
…
he is interrupted by Zatanna's voice in his ear. “The League will take over from here, Tim”.
“I have to go now, one of my friends will be in in a minute, ok?” she looks at him with sad, dark, amber eyes, and he struggles to break eye contact as he moves to the door.
As he leaves Zatanna is waiting for him, “you shouldn't have been in there alone, she is incredibly dangerous”
“I'm not so sure” he mutters to himself
She closes her eyes for a heartbeat and he gets the sense she is resisting the urge to roll her eyes at him, “either way we will find out. now why don't you head up the watchtower, the others want to celebrate”
he gives a quick nod and she turns to talk to Tigress as he heads for the zeta tubes. He sets it to take him the bat-cave as he doesn't feel much like celebrating.
It's less than ten minutes later that he gets a call from the watchtower...
Barbara appears on the main screen, “well what do we have here.” she says causing Tim to jump, “skipping your own party to sit in the cave and look over case reports. You're becoming more like B every day, and not in a good way either.”
In response, Tim just mutters something like, “it's not just my party”
“no but you are the star guest, the best the rest of the team managed to get was Hook, you brought down Kasumi, hell she even beat hawkwoman”
“look there is something really strange going on. she didn't kill Hawkwoman, or Kf, or me. From what I can make out her whole M.O. Is zero collateral, the only person she has hurt who wasn't obviously an intended mark was a bodyguard who was about to whistle-blow on his boss. and that's another thing, I've been looking through all her kills, she doesn't exactly take her time, most of them never even knew she was there. I dunno it just feels like there is something we aren't seeing. that there is more to her."
“ok boy wonder, take a breather. We both know the Shadows have a rule about not killing without being paid to, right? and look, I'll admit there is a lot we don't know, that's why Zee and Art are interrogating h- Oh hell” she curses as she glances left, before turning round to call to someone behind her.
Tim brings up the footage of the interrogation room the girl was put in, what he sees sends him running for the zeta tube, Barbara calling after him.
she can hear voices outside the room she is in. she knows they must be deciding on her punishment, she has never been allowed to lose control before. Maybe she will be in luck, she thinks, and they will make it quick.
The words they said made her feel so... strange. it made her body move, impossible to control, but impossible wasn't allowed to stop her before. She curls tighter into the corner. She hopes she will see the nice one again, it's strange they were nice even though she hurt them.
She hears the door open and squeezes her eyes shut, but she just hears a rustle across the room as the door shuts. She glances up warily, across the room next to the table she overturned they were sat, black and red cape fanning out onto the floor behind them. Her excitement at seeing the nice one quickly fades into confusion as to why they are here. She can see they are trying to be non-threatening, but she can also see tension, is it at her? or the others? it has to be her right? otherways that would mean they were trying to defend her. but they aren't angry. so maybe they are? she feels her eyes dampen at the very thought.
They shift forward on seeing her tears, palms forward trying to comfort her, concern in there every line and a calming voice. As they spot her smile they smile back relief obvious. With over-exaggerated gestures, they say they are going to a new room for her to rest. She can see there offer is genuine and they aren't hiding anything. in fact, she finds there over the top display funny, the strange noise that she makes course them to smile again. They move to stand and she follows.
Both of them leave the room the one who was with her turns right, to the left are two guards, one in orange with black stripes, sword and crossbow at her waist, the other in a black bodysuit and blue jacket, with a band around their neck. Both of them are cautious and watch her with barely concealed hostility. She can see a dozen ways of killing both of them. and wishes she couldn't.
The four of them head down the corridor. She thinks they are likely underground or deep in a building as there are no windows just a smattering of doors down each of the white walls. They come to a stop in front of a person dressed in red, marked with lightning bolts. who isn't even trying to hide their anger, she thinks she must have hurt someone they care about, by the way they move, to fast to be real, probably the fast one in yellow and red she fought earlier, the two of them move the same. they look away to the nice one in red and black who says something to them, it's hard to understand from his back but the one in red nods and directs them to the door next to them. The nice one turns and smiles at her before opening the door and showing her in.
the room beyond is somewhat sparse just a bed in the middle of the room and several sets of draws around the outside. She also spots a dozen tiny cameras hidden around. The door shuts behind the two of them and they direct her to the bed indicating that it is time to rest. She bows her head in thanks and they smile at her again before leaving the room. She drops into the bed, it's far too soft, it feels like she sinks all the way to the floor, but as she doesn't know how long she will be allowed to sleep she focuses on calming her mind and falling asleep quickly.
when Tim makes it back to his apartment he is met by the smell of pizza and drops onto the couch next to Stephanie
“Rough day? must be hard being the star of the 'catch the baddie' party”
“no it's not..., it's just, I'm not sure how much of a 'bad guy' she is”
“wait, Barb said she was an assassin, you know... as in...”
“yes I know what an assassin is, but I... I don't think she wanted to, it's hard to explain. but we aren't even trying to help her, and I can't convince anyone to. isn't that meant to be the whole point of the league, to help people who need it?”
Tim sags as he says this showing how helpless he feels and Steph bites her lip trying to think of a way to help.
“you know the subconscious is good at solving problems while you are distracted?”
“that's now really true, it's more-”
“quiet while I'm being smooth” she interrupts putting two fingers on his lips to quiet him. He waves for her to go on while smiling under her fingers
“well, how about I find something to distract you”
Tim barely has a chance to blink before she straddles his hips, his hands move up to her waist as she leans into a kiss...