Chapter 51: You’ll Need Me

The next morning, Arias was planning to just sleep in because he had a rather late and rowdy night with his masochistic employee.

However, he couldn't do that because his door bell was buzzing early in the morning, preventing him from sleeping even if he wanted to.

He was surprised to see Harley sleep through it, without it flinching, only after trying to wake her up himself did he realize that she was just unconsciousness.

"At least she's not dead."

Arias reluctantly got up and went to answer the door, already having a guess as to whom was at the door.

Upon opening it, he found his guess to be right when he found Barbara standing behind the door impatiently.

"It was you, wasn't it?" She asked out of the blue.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that."

"Catwoman, her capture, it was you." Barbara emphasized, to which Arias gave a casual nod of acceptance.

"I played a part yes. Is that why you decided to disturb my sleep? I'm starting to regret granting you access to this floor."

To her surprise, Arias readily accepted playing a role in the recent capture of Catwoman.

Despite it being obvious, she thought he would attempt to deny it.

"How did you even find her? Even I didn't know her identity."

Barbara asked while trying to enter Arias's penthouse but she was stopped when he stretched his hand to block her way.

"That's my business, more importantly where are you going?"

Arias really didn't look like he was in the mood today from his tone so she made sure not to display attitude or sarcasm when speaking.

"Inside? Am I not supposed to?"

She was genuinely confused for a moment as to why he didn't want her to enter, even going as far as to think he was hiding something.

"Yes, I no longer see the point in you doing so. Despite saying you'd be useful to me by providing information on criminals to me, you didn't. To sum it up you're useless to me and I don't see why I should bother wasting my time on you."

Barbara was surprised to receive that harsh revelation from Arias, but he felt it was necessary. If he granted her too much leeway, she would feel like he held some sort of importance towards her.

"I-…"

She didn't know how to reply, her once confident tone became low pitched and weak.

"You what? Thought you were special? Don't fool yourself. You screwed up and the masked wonder you look up to hasn't done anything to help your situation. To be honest, I only agreed to you working for me, if you can even call it that because I felt sorry for you."

"You're a failure of a hero who got her identity exposed, risking the lives of her innocent family and her own in the process. Did you ever once consider how badly the day of your capture could have gone? What if I was a murderer? Rapist? Or a psycho? Did you once think of that?"

Barbara bit her lip slightly and hesitated to answer, feeling as if all the words she wanted to say were getting stuck on her throat.

"I-I did think about it in a way…"

She had no idea what answer was appropriate for such a situation. Arias's scolding making her feel genuinely embarrassed by own actions.

"Oh, you do? But despite me keeping your secret safe and asking for nothing in return, you failed to help me bring a criminal to justice. Maybe I should just expose your identity and be done with it, both you and Bruce."

When Arias mentioned Bruce's name, Barbara's eyes widened. As if by reflex she was quick to reply.

"Don't, I'm the one who went back on our deal okay? I'll do anything just don't bring others into this?"

A pleading look appeared on Barbara's face, bringing a smile to Arias as he broke out into a small laugh.

"I get it now; you have a crush on him. It explains quite a lot actually, your belief in his words and ideals blindly, your desire to impress him and even your ignorance towards his wrongs. After all I'm sure the public would be furious to learn he let Catwoman go multiple times because the two were intimate."

Barbara's head was a whirlpool of emotions. Fear, disbelief, frustration, anxiety. There was a lot she didn't know how to express, how teenage heart feeling a sense of betrayal.

"He wouldn't do that."

She was quick to reject Arias's words, despite the connection that could be made from some of them.

"Right, I'm sure that's why Selina begged me not to reveal it. What reason do I have to slander him? I could ruin his and your life by simply revealing your identities. Go ask him yourself, I'm done playing games."

Arias was just about to shut the door when Barbara hurriedly held his hand, stopping him from doing so.

"Wait please, please don't reveal them. I'll do anything…" She muttered, feeling quite helpless and pathetic.

Arias stopped and turned to face her before crossing his arms as if bored.

"Get on your knees."

"What…?" Barbara looked around, as if worried about the location, but what did Arias care.

"Did I stutter?"

Barbara bit her lip in frustration and did as she was told. Without anything else being said, she reached toward Arias's pants and tried to unzip them but he stopped her.

"I wanted you on your knees, nothing more. You're so pitiful its not even entertaining. Leave, our keep your secret and his for now. There's nothing I need from you, rather its you who has to offer me something you think I would want."

Without waiting for a reply, Arias shut the door, leaving her rejected in that humiliating posture. He wanted to thoroughly chip away at her pride and beliefs, so that the next time she came, she would have a greater reality of her situation and act in accordance to that for him.