Chapter Text
Bette dropped down onto the rooftop next to her sister. Across the roof was the man they had come to meet, a very exhausted-looking Jim Gordon. He looked even more tired than he did when he picked up Barbara at Gotham Academy. The undersides of his eyes were violet, and the lines on his face looked like dried-up riverbeds.
Gordon gave them a skeptical look as he stepped closer. "Thank you for meeting me."
Kate nodded in acknowledgement. "We're here to help."
"Right…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "This is sort of… awkward. Batman and I, it took a while for us to come to our… understanding. We built a sort of report over the years. I don't know anything about you."
"As opposed to Batman, who invited you over for tea on the regular?"
Gordon's frown deepened. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "I at least knew-"
"Please don't smoke in front of Batgirl," Kate admonished.
Gordon blushed and put the cigarettes away. "I knew his methods. I knew where he draws the line. I don't know how far you're willing to go. I've already been toeing the line of legality these past few years."
Bette scoffed. "That's one way of putting it."
Gordon ran his fingers through his graying hair. "Look, if you're even half as informed as Batman was, or hell, if you just keep up with current events, you know about the GCPD's corruption problem. I've been doing everything I can to clean up this department, and working with Batman allowed me to circumnavigate some of the more corrupt officials. I've done what I've had to do."
Kate smirked at him. "So that's your line? What needs to be done? Are you the judge of which rules need to be followed and which can be bent or broken?"
Gordon sighed. "I know I sound like a hypocrite. The thing is, Batman was more than just a vigilante. He cared about this city and everyone in it."
"So do we," Bette said. "You assume we have bad intentions, but I think that's projection."
Gordon gave her an appraising look, like he could see right through her mask, but that was ridiculous. "Are you saying you think I'm corrupt?"
She didn't. Bette didn't know Barbara's father well, or at all, really, but no, she didn't think he was corrupt. "I think you're afraid of other people thinking that. Oh! You're like Caliph Al-Hakim. I was just reading about him in this book my-"
"Bette," Kate said in a harsh tone.
"Right, sorry," Bette said. "I just mean, he killed a bunch of Christians because people thought he was a Christian, so he was trying to prove he wasn't. You're trying to prove to yourself that you aren't corrupt by accusing us of corruption. How can you have gone too far if you're chastising us for going too far? It's bad logic though."
Gordon stared at her. "What?"
"Basically, we're vigilantes that work outside the law. If you mistrust us for being vigilantes that work outside the law, you see that as proof that you respect the law. Someone who doesn't care about the law wouldn't distrust people who break it. The only problem is that you already broke the law. You've been doing it for years."
Gordon frowned at her. In an unthinking gesture he pulled his carton of cigarettes back out. "I-"
"Please don't smoke in front of Batgirl," Kate admonished once more.
Gordon sighed and put the carton away again. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Look, you say you're here to help, and I won't lie to you: I need help. Robin has been doing his best to step into the big guy's shoes, but he's just a kid. I feel bad about relying on him. I don't even know how old he is, not really. I'm not sure I want to know." He gave Bette a skeptical look. "How old are you?"
"Nineteen," she lied.
"Batgirl," Kate said in a harsh tone, so Gordon would think the lie was true.
"Oops, sorry," Batte said. It wasn't hard to pretend to be stupid. It was funny how eager people were to believe they were smarter than someone else.
"Well that's something, I guess," Gordon said. He checked his watch. "We don't have much more time. Listen, one of my lieutenants, I don't have proof, but I know he's dirty. I've been checking the GPS on his patrol car. He's been going to the same spot at the Gotham docks every night for almost a week. This afternoon he drove near the Penguin's club and was parked for almost an hour. I think he was getting instructions. Something is going down tonight at the docks. I'd bust him myself, but if I'm wrong he'll know I was onto him."
Kate nodded. "Batgirl and I will handle it." Without so much as a fare thee well Kate pulled out her grappling hook and fired it at a neighboring building. Bette mirrored her sister, and soon they were swinging towards the docks.
They landed in a large pool of shadows behind the clockface of the old pierhead building. The sisters had an unobstructed view of the docks. The hustle and bustle of the day was done, and there was nothing to see but stillness and weak starlight. Bette held onto an old gargoyle as she leaned forward and watched for any motion below.
"Watcha doin?"
"Ah!" Bette lost her grip on the gargoyle and would have tumbled off the building if Kate hadn't caught her. Kate pulled out a batarang as she pulled Bette close to her and prepared to face their enemy.
Bette looked up at Robin's grinning face. He was hanging upside down from some piping. "Fancy meeting you here," Robin said.
Kate relaxed somewhat. Bette regained her footing. "Robin," Bette said. "Hi." She wanted to smack herself. Hi wasn't a cool greeting at all.
"Nice batarang," Robin said in a tone that implied he didn't find it very nice at all. "Isn't that sort of trademark infringement?"
Kate frowned. "When Batman disappeared, the city was in chaos. This symbol means something to the people of Gotham. I was only trying to help." She put the batarang away.
"I'm here," Robin said. "I can take care of this city."
"All on your own?"
Robin scowled. "You don't think I'm capable? I've been doing this for years. You just started."
"I'm not trying to compete with you. Like I said, I only want to help."
"Using Batman's symbol," Robin grumbled. "Batman and I have worked together almost since he started. You never even met him. What gives you the right to his symbol?"
"Nothing, I suppose," Kate said. "Do you want us to stop using his symbol?"
"I-" Robin frowned. "They're here." He seemed to almost dissolve into the night. Bette turned around and saw a patrol car with its searchlights on drive along the empty dock.
Kate jumped to another building, and Bette followed. They shadowed the patrol car until it stopped. They climbed down from the roof to get closer. The driver of the patrol car stepped out, a flip phone held up to his ear. "It's all clear," he said. He hung up the phone and put it in his pocket.
After a few tense minutes another car pulled up. Four men stepped out. The two from the backseat were carrying carbines. The driver had a pistol holstered at his hip. The passenger had a briefcase handcuffed to his left wrist and a revolver in his right hand. The guy with the briefcase looked at the cop. "You checked the whole dock?"
"Twice," the cop said. "There's no one here."
"What about Batman," one of the guys with the carbines said in a Russian accent.
"Batman's dead," the cop said. "The whole GCPD knows it. Gordon found the body and disposed of it so no one would find out."
"My cousin saw Batman a few weeks ago," the non-Russian with the carbine said.
"Well your cousin is full of shit," the cop said.
"I heard Batman had a sex change," the driver said. Bette couldn't see his face, but she could tell by his tone that he was smirking.
"Hey," the briefcase guy said. "All of you shut the fuck up and get into position."
The cop drew his gun and walked a short ways away, where he could see if anyone approached from the road. Each guy with a carbine positioned himself facing opposite sides of the dock. The driver and the guy with the briefcase faced the water. They waited.
Bette and Kate waited too. Bette wondered where Robin had gone. After about fifteen minutes a boat appeared. It had no lights on, so it was almost at the dock by the time Bette saw it. There were four men onboard with rifles and one man driving the boat. Two of the riflemen tied up the boat, and then all four stepped off.
The guy with the briefcase didn't waste time. "Do you have it?"
"Show me payment first," the driver of the boat said.
Briefcase guy lifted the briefcase up. "It's in here."
"Show me."
"You think I'm playing you?"
"I want to see the diamonds."
"Well I want to see the kryptonite," briefcase guy said.
Behind her mask Bette's eyes went wide. Kryptonite was the rarest and most valuable substance on earth. Her heart started to bang against her breastbone and her mouth went dry. This was serious. It always had been, but she was beginning to wonder if they were out of their depth.
"Show me the diamonds, and I'll show you the kryptonite."
"Show me the kryptonite and I'll show you the diamonds," the briefcase guy said in a mulish tone.
One of the riflemen from the boat spoke up. "Let's get this done. I need to take a shit."
Two shots rang out in quick succession. The cop shot both of the men with the carbines before anyone could react. The riflemen shot at the driver of the car and the man with the briefcase. Both shot back, but they were outnumbered. One of the riflemen went down, but within a few seconds all of the men from the car were dead. The cop walked over at a leisurely pace. No one tried to help the rifleman bleeding out on the ground.
"Well that was- hey!" The boat the riflemen had come in on was driving away, but there was no driver. The cop and the three remaining riflemen fired at it.
While they were distracted, Kate swooped in. She went for the cop first. She jumped on his back and put him in a headlock while kicking his gun out of his hand. Bette jumped on one of the riflemen. One of the other two riflemen was looped up by a grappling line and then pulled into the second, causing both to lose their footing and their rifles.
The driver of the boat pulled a gun out from inside his jacket and aimed at Bette. Robin slammed into him from above, making him drop the gun. Kate cuffed the cop, and Bette cuffed her rifleman. Robin ran over to the rifleman on the ground, bleeding out but still showing signs of life. Briefcase guy and the driver of the car were clearly dead.
Robin pulled out some gauze and tried to stop the bleeding. "Who do you work for, and where did the kryptonite come from?"
Bette tried to cuff the driver of the boat, but he pulled out a knife and swiped at her. Bette jumped back. He dove for his gun, and she kicked it away. He tried to stab her, but Bette twisted to the side and slammed into his back as he passed her, causing him to fall again and his knife to slide away. She put her knee on his back and grabbed his wrists, cuffing him. Bette looked up and saw Kate fighting both of the riflemen Robin had knocked down. She swiped one's feet out from under him and sent him tumbling into the water.
Robin was still treating the wounded rifleman while demanding answers from him. Kate's remaining rifleman feigned that he was going to punch her, but as she got into her defensive posture he dove in the opposite direction. He grabbed the boat driver's knife, which had slid across the dock next to Robin and the wounded rifleman when Bette knocked him down. The rifleman went to plunge the knife into Robin's back, but a shot rang out.
Kate lowered the gun she had picked up as the rifleman slumped over. The man's forehead was gone. Robin jumped to his feet and turned around. He stared at Kate with an expression of shock and horror. "What did you do?"
"I saved your life," Kate said. "You're welcome."
"You shot someone!"
"I did. I'd do it again. I meant what I said before." She tapped the red bat on her costume. "This symbol means something to the people of Gotham, and so do you. You give people hope. In a choice between shooting a murderer and letting a child die, I'll always take the shot."
"I'm not a child!" Red crept up his neck to the tips of his ears. "Batman doesn't kill, and he doesn't use guns!"
Bette felt weird watching her sister argue with Robin. Bette admired Robin. Without Robin as proof of concept, Bette doubted Kate would have let Bette fight crime with her. She patted down the driver of the boat to distract herself. Inside his jacket was a necklace with three glowing green stones.
"Don't you touch that, little girl," the boat driver growled.
Bette stepped away from him and examined the necklace closer. "Is this the kryptonite?"
Robin abandoned his argument with Kate and ran over to Bette. "Let me see."
She handed over the necklace. Robin pulled a small lens from his utility belt and examined the stones. "It's kryptonite," he said. He put the necklace and the lens into his utility belt.
"You're just going to keep that," Kate said in a mock reproachful tone.
"I have to," Robin said. "If this ends up in GCPD evidence Lex Luthor will have it by lunchtime tomorrow. Well, today," Robin amended. It was after midnight.
"Isn't that stealing?" Kate's tone was one of humor, but Robin looked anything but amused.
"You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know anything. You're a murderer!"
"Listen here," Kate said, and all the humor in her voice was gone. "I killed that man, but I am no murderer. Do you think for a second that if Batman had to choose between you and someone who wanted to kill you that he would just let you die?"
"Batman would have found-!"
Sirens cut Robin off. Blue and red lights lit up the docks as cop cars pulled around the corner. Bette, Kate and Robin all pulled out grappling hooks and scaled the wall of an abandoned warehouse to the roof. The cops swarmed the dock, throwing cuffed crooks into the back of their patrol cars. One of the cops checked the pulse on each corpse.
When she reached the rifleman Robin had given medical attention to, she shouted to her compatriots. "This one's alive. Get EMS!"
Robin turned away and jumped to the next roof. Bette followed him. She wasn't quite sure it was a good idea, but she didn't want to leave things on a sour note. She liked Robin. Maybe if they worked things out the three of them could be a team.
Robin stopped on one roof and shined a light into the water. "What are you looking for?"
"The guy Batwoman threw in the water," Robin said.
Behind them, Kate answered with a tone of derision. "Are you upset about that too? I know for a fact you and Batman have thrown people in the harbor before."
"I want to make sure he doesn't get away," Robin said.
"Right," Kate said. "Of course."
Bette snickered at her sister. Then she spotted movement in the water. "There!"
They swooped down. Kate clipped a line to her belt and then handed it to Robin. He braced himself against one of the pilings of the dock. She jumped down and grabbed hold of the swimmer. Bette grabbed the rope, and she and Robin towed the two back onto the dock. Kate dropped the swimmer onto his knees
"Tell us where you got the kryptonite," Robin said.
The swimmer spit at him, which he dodged with ease. "Fuck you, bird boy."
"Wow, really original," Bette said. "I bet you're like the first ever person to think of that."
"The very first," Robin said, nodding.
Kate grabbed handfuls of the man's drenched jacket, hauled him to his feet and then slammed him against a wall. "Who do you work for?"
"You might have a bat on your chest, but you aren't Batman. I'm not afraid of you, bitch." He smirked at her.
Kate shot her grappling line at the roof and then attached it to the back of the man's jacket. She hit a button, and he was yanked up to the roof. Bette and Robin fired their own lines and scaled up to where he was. Robin snickered. "Comfy?"
"That bitch is crazy!"
"Yeah," Bette said. "She shot one of your buddies. Honestly you're probably better off with the GCPD."
"You can't scare me. I might not be from here, but I keep up with how supers operate. Batman doesn't kill."
"As you so astutely pointed out moments ago," Bette said "She's not Batman."
"You won't kill me," the man said. Kate did something, and the line let out two inches of slack. The man screamed. The smell of ammonia hit Bette's nose. She wrinkled her face in disgust. "Are you crazy?! Pull me up!"
"I'll pull you up," Robin said. "Just tell us where you got the kryptonite."
"Fine," he said. "We got it in China."
"That necklace didn't have any indicators of Sinitic artwork. Try again."
Kate did something again, and he dropped a few more inches. "Christ! Boy Wonder, please, I know you're a good person. Pull me up kid, c'mon, please."
"That's a big drop," Bette said. "Where did you get the necklace?"
"Fuck! They'll kill me if I say!"
"They'll never know you said anything," Robin said.
Kate dropped him a few inches again. "Shit! Ethiopia! We found it in Ethiopia! Some fucking fisherman was trying to pawn it in Jimma. He didn't even know what he had."
"Was that so hard?" Bette grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him up onto the roof. She cuffed him. "Shoot, now we have to get him to the cops. I don't want to go down the stairs." She shoved him off the roof.
The man screamed as he went down, but he never hit the dock. Kate controlled his descent. She unhook her grapple line from him and then hauled him up. Bette and Robin scaled back down the wall.
The man was panting, and there was a foul odor emanating from him. "You cunts," he hissed.
"So rude," Bette said. "Someone should wash your mouth out with soap."
A car rounded the corner, an unmarked GCPD vehicle. It stopped in front of them, and Commissioner Gordon stepped out of the vehicle. He pulled a carton of cigarettes out of his breast pocket.
"Don't-"
"Smoke in front of Batgirl, yeah, I got it," Gordon said. He put the cigarettes back with a sigh.
"Don't smoke in front of Robin either," Kate admonished. "Did Batman let you smoke in front of Robin?" Her tone was reproachful.
Robin immediately jumped to Batman's defense. "No! He didn't! I didn't usually meet with the commissioner anyway. Batman did that solo." He frowned, like he was realizing he shouldn't have said anything. The red came back.
"I'm sure you were doing other important stuff," Bette said.
"Yeah, exactly," Robin was quick to agree. "Thanks."
Kate pushed the snitch forward. "Present for you, Commissioner."
"And it's not even my birthday," Gordon said. He took the prisoner and then put him in the back of his car. When he turned around he looked surprised. "You're still here. Batman would have disappeared while my back was turned."
"We'll keep that in mind for next time," Kate said. "You got the corrupt cop?"
"We did," Gordon said. "He's denying everything for now, but hopefully the weight of the evidence against him will convince him to flip and rat out the other cops on Penguin's take."
"He betrayed Penguin," Robin said. "He shot the other guys working for the Penguin. You can use that against him. If the Penguin finds out he was double dealing, he might give evidence to stay out of general population."
"Good idea," Gordon said. "Good work too." He reached for his pocket, remembered and then dropped his hand. "Any word on your boss?"
"He's still missing," Robin said. "I'm going to find him. I'm working on it, I just… I'm going to find him."
Gordon nodded. He looked awkward. He looked like he would rather be anywhere than talking to a teenage vigilante with a missing dad. At least, Bette assumed Batman was Robin's dad. "Well, in the meantime, I'm glad the three of you are working together."
"We're not working together," Robin said. "We just both happened to be working on this case, separately, at the same time."
"In the same place," Kate said. The humor had returned to her voice.
"Yeah," Robin said. "That's all."
"I wouldn't mind it," Bette said. "If we did work together from time to time."
Robin gave Kate a skeptical look. "On one condition."
"Let me hear it," Kate said.
"No guns and no killing," Robin said.
Kate stared at him for a few seconds. She nodded her head. "Deal," she said. "Anything else?"
Robin shook his head. "That's all for now." He nodded at Bette. "Batgirl," he said. He nodded at Commissioner Gordon. "Commissioner," he said. He scaled back up the building and all but flew away, like the bird he was named for.
"I don't think he likes me," Kate said.
"What was he referring to?" Gordon looked tense.
Kate met his gaze. "One of the gunmen tried to stab him," Kate said. "So I stopped him."
"By shooting him?"
"Just so," Kate said.
Just like Kate had with Robin, Gordon stared at Kate. Again, just like Kate, he nodded. "Good," he said. "Don't make a habit out of it, but… good. I like that kid. I'm protective of him. He's sort of Gotham City's mascot. Don't tell him I said that."
"Perish the thought," Kate said.
Gordon nodded. He got back into his car. "See you around." He drove off with his prisoner.
Bette looked at her sister. "Are you going to keep your deal with Robin?"
"I will unless an innocent life is threatened and there's only one way to save it."
Bette nodded. She'd expected as much. The two bats took to the roofs and flew away.