Detective Barbara Gordon 12

Bang!

He missed.

Barbara dropped and rolled towards Russo's gun. After she got the gun, she immediately went into a shooting position.

"Put the gun down, now!" She shouted.

Tanner just grinned and slowly turned to face Barbara. " Oh, Barbs."

"I'll shoot. Don't move."

"I don't know how the Franzeses concluded that you're also a stone-cold assassin just by knowing a guy named Rash or whatever. You see, a killer wouldn't shake while pointing a gun at someone."

"I'm shaking because I'm wounded."

"No. I've seen you do this multiple times. And trust me," He chuckled. "I know someone traumatized when I see one."

Barbara was hesitating to pull the trigger, not just because she was afraid of killing someone, but also because the man that she was pointing a gun at was someone who she considered as a close friend. Someone she had good memories with.

"Gugh..." Barbara dropped her hand still holding on to the gun along with her head. She's given up and accepted death

Tanner smiled in satisfaction as he raise up his gun and pointed it at Barbara.

But just as he was about to shoot...

Crash!

He looked up and saw someone leaping in through the window.

A girl with blonde hair tied into a ponytail was holding two daggers in reverse in each hand. Her sharp blue eyes that seemed colder than ice can make a normal person shudder in fear.

Tanner backed up and fired at her.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Tsp. Tsp.

"Grr!" He threw the emptied gun away and ran.

Elise threw a dagger at him. It would have hit Tanner on his head if he hadn't passed by a pillar. The pillar received damage instead.

"Are you okay, Barbara?!" Elise tended to her and helped Barbara change into a more comfortable position.

"Urgh! I'm... still okay...how did..."

"I had our business partner trace your phone."

"Tanner..."

"Don't worry about him. I closed off all other exits other than here at the front. He'll have to pass through me." Elise said before turning her attention to Tanner who was panicking and frantically trying to open all the doors.

"I blocked all the exits, Tanner.... the only way out is through me!" Elise exclaimed.

"Heh." Tanner scoffed. "Then I'll just have to go through you..." He walked slowly to the dagger that was lodged in the wooden pillar and took it out.

Then, he walked towards Elise.

Elise did the same but soon noticed something different about her.

"It looks like I didn't totally miss earlier..." Tanner said with a grin.

"Gugh!" Elise clutched her leg that was bleeding and continued walking with a limp towards Tanner.

Once they were in front of each other, Elise readied herself. "You're not gonna escape like last time."

"..."

The first one to make a move was Tanner. He jabbed the dagger at Elise multiple times but Elise dodged all of it.

It was her time for her to counter but Tanner did something strange. He reached for his back. It made Elise weary and Tanner turned his jab into a slash.

Elise wasn't able to dodge it fully and her arm got slashed.

"I tricked you..." Tanner chuckled. "I had nothing on my back." He turned around showing his back.

This made Elise annoyed because an enemy was carelessly showing his back to her.

She charged in and Tanner turned around simultaneously. "Kidding~" He pointed a gun at her.

It was a trick using a sleight. He already reached for his gun before he turned around. He turned around again to reveal it.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Tsp. Tsp.

"There..." Tanner grinned as he threw away the emptied gun. "A trained assassin like you should have handicaps when fighting an amateur like me. Now it'll be a good fight." He said as he posed with the dagger in his hand.

Elise dodged all the bullets earlier and even blocked some with her dagger, but her other leg got shot in the process. Now, only one of her limbs is fully functional.

"Elise!-Gurgh!!" Barbara clutched her side as she worried about Elise.

"Don't worry about us, Barbs. It'll be your turn soon..." Tanner said.

"Fuck you, asshole..." Barbara cussed him out.

Tanner went on the attack again. Jab. Jab. Slash.

Everything attack that went to Elise's way was either dodged or blocked by her dagger.

She was slower than earlier because of the wounds she sustained but still fast enough to manage Tanner's attacks

Elise was preserving her strength just like what Barbara did to her last time and focused on defense.

"Gurgh! Gugh! Ha!" Tanner sped up his attacks but only got gassed faster.

His moments got slower and Elise was able to grab ahold of his arm that was holding the dagger and manipulated his wrist to drop them.

"Grrr!" Tanner grunted as he tried his best to keep the dagger in his hands bt it was no use.

Tink tink tink

The dagger fell out of his hands and Elise kicked it away.

Tanner spun to get out of Elise's hold but she let go of him and he got off balance.

He fell down on his buttocks leaving him open without a dagger to block with.

Elise slashed down on him.

Tink.

Tanner blocked it with his arm but something was weird. It was supposed to slice through but it stopped upon contact.

He smiled and took out a dagger from its sheathe that was under his sleeve the whole time and used it to block Elise's attack.

Tanner slashed at Elise's arm. "Argh!" She grunted as she let go of her dagger.

He kicked Elise's stomach and made her fall back. Without wasting any time, he got up and went on the offensive again.

Tanner tackled Elise and pinned her down. He lifted his dagger up high with Elise's throat as his target.

Bang!

He let go of the dagger and it fell down just next to Elise's head.

Elise and Tanner were both shocked at what happened. Tanner got shot in the chest.

Bang! Bang!

He got shot twice more.

Tanner clutched his chest and fell down off of Elise.

Elise moved back away from him and looked at the direction where the shots came from.

Barbara, who was already in tears, was still pointing the gun at Tanner's direction as smoke came out of it.

"Barbara..." Elise slowly crawled near her, worried.

"Barbara... you can let go of the gun now... " She took the gun from Barbara and guided her hands down. She put her arm around Barbara and clasped her hands with her other hand.

"Gugh...Ugh...." Barbara started to wail.

"It's gonna be okay, Barbs. It'll be alright..."

Half an hour passed until Barbara finally stopped crying.

"My organization will come by any minute now..." Elise said as she continued to put pressure on Barbara's wound. "Thank you..." She smiled wryly.

"What for..." Barbara asked.

"You overcame your fear and saved me..."

"Hah." *sniff* Barbara chuckled. "I wasn't gonna let someone get killed."

"That's just it... I'm not just someone... I'm barely even innnocent. Just like him." Elise looked at the lifeless body of Tanner. "I'm just another criminal... and you saved me..."

"You're not just some criminal..." Barbara smiled at her. "... you're my friend"

Elise bit her lip because it startled to tremble but she still couldn't help her tears from falling. "I'm..." She quickly wiped it away. "I'm sorry..." *sniff* "Thank you..."

Bam!

Callaghan was the first to enter the door. He quickly scanned the place and rushed when she found Elise.

"Elise! Are you okay?!"

"Mr. Callaghan... I just have some bullet wounds, but Barbara has a deep stab wound on her side."

"We'll get you two to our doctor, right away..." He said, finally calming down. "What do we do with all this?"

"Clean it up to look like they shot each other and Barbara found them..." Elise looked at Barbara. "If that's okay with you."

Barbara nodded weakly. "Yeah..."

----

With the position of detective sergeant now empty, and because Barbara was the one that caught the serial killer and the rat in their station, the rank and position was given to her.

"Congratulations... Detective Sergeant Gordon." The captain greeted her at the stage as she was awarded the medal of valor.

"Thank you, sir..." She shook his hands, but immediately gave him a hug afterwards which wasn't supposed to be part of the ceremony.

The captain was surprised but he also hugged her back. "Ehem..." The captain cleared his throat and nodded at her before walking away.

Barbara looked at the audience with her station being proud of her, but she noticed a pair of eyes watching her in the shadows of the balcony and just made a wry smile.

----

"You're quitting? You're not just taking a vacation?"

"Yes..." Elise said to Callaghan firmly.

"Okay, then..." He said, shrugging.

Elise was taken aback. "Th-That's it?"

"Well, yeah... I mean, who would want to stop an assassin that can kill multiple men alone from leaving." He nonchalantly replied.

"Wha-"

"Look, we didn't force you to be here either. You could have said no when you were offered to be a boss in Brooklyn after paying your debt."

Elise was stunned.

"I'll deposit money to your account as a farewell gift..." Callaghan tapped on his tablet.

"Wai-Wait! Wait! That's really it? You won't plant bombs in my apartment or anything like that?"

Callaghan scoffed. "You always check your place before you go in, anyway." He looked at Elise who was dumbfounded and sighed. "Elise Kate Davis... if you don't go now, I'll change my mind."

"O-okay..." She hesitantly got up and left.

Exiting the room, a man charged at her.

She thought 'I knew it...'

But the man that charged at her was someone she knew and he didn't have any killing intent. Instead, he hugged her.

"Boss!" The man cried. "You're really leaving us?!"

Elise smiled wryly and hugged the man back. "Yeah, Stan...." It was her bartender. "Take care of the bar for me."

*sniff* "I will!"

----

"So... you let go of Elise... just when we're about to become fully legitimate too..." Callaghan's right hand man said.

"Yeah..." Callaghan said as he looked at a picture of Franzeses' decaptitated head. The final obstacle for them to become a fully legal company.

"...."

"Do you remember the first time we found her?"

"At the compound? Yeah.."

"I... lied about her being useful to us..."

"She reminded you of your wife and daughter, didn't she?"

"Yes..." Callaghan said with a regretful smile. "She... had the same blue eyes prying out of her mask... I couldn't help myself... and I still made her go through all that ... Seeing her all bloody after coming back from her missions broke my heart each time... I just looked at it as atonement for letting them die..." He clenched his fist.

His wife and child, before he remarried, got killed by a competitor and he made a deal with the league of assassins to wipe them all out in exchange for his most-prized possession at the time. A chunk of Nth metal.

"You did what you could at the time, sir..."

---- Ten years later at Gotham ----

At the Police Commissioner's office...

"You got your dad's office back. Congratulations." A blonde-haired woman was visiting the newly reinstated Police Commissioner.

"Thank you, Elise. I wouldn't have cleaned the police here if it weren't for you giving me that list of names."

"It's for a friend, after all..." She smiled at her. "And getting it was easy. Mr. Callaghan's competitor would weaken if their business partners here get taken down."

Barbara chuckled. "I thought he was already legit?"

"Yeah, but this is what happens when your competitors still use illegal methods." Elise shrugged before smiling playfully. "So... batgirl, huh." She leaned towards Barbara and whispered.

Barbara made a wry smile. "It was a long time ago."

"I saw some old videos of you and the Batman. I couldn't believe that was you. It was so... amateur." She teased

Both of them laughed.

"You're going back to boston after this?"

"Yeah... I worry about the kids if I leave them with their Dad for too long."

Callaghan deposited a hundred million dollars into Elise's bank account when she left their organization years ago.

She moved to boston and established an animal sanctuary. That's where she met her husband and eventually made a family together...

"Good for you, finally living a peaceful life..."

"Why not try it yourself?"

"In this city?" Barbara scoffed. "Maybe in the future, but not now." Barbara said with determination in her eyes.

"I see..." Elise made a wry smile. "well, then, you still have another meeting, right?" She stood up from her seat.

"Yeah. Thanks for coming by. Don't hesitate to contact me, okay?"

"Yeah..." She waved at Barbara before going out of the door.

Outside Barbara's office, someone caught Elise's eye.

Sitting right outside of the office, was a young man with a rugged appearance, wearing a brown leather jacket.

Elise passed him by and saw his eyes that had the same intensity as hers once were.

"McGinnis!" Barbara's voice called out and the young man stood up and entered the office.

Elise watched him with curiosity as he entered Barbara's office, but as soon as the door to the office closed, she spun her heel and went on her way...