Detective Barbara Gordon 8

It was a rainy night.

A trained warrior and assassin. Considered one of the best in her class. Left covered in mud and in her own blood to die.

Step. Step. Step.

A man in a white suit with a matching fedora hat stopped next to her and looked around as he smoked a cigar under his umbrella held by one of his subordinates. "Tsk. Such a mess..."

The whole area was filled with countless bodies.

They were in a compound owned by their competitor. The league of assassins had made a business deal with their group. A huge chunk of rare metal in exchange for taking down their competitor. And now, it's their job to clean up their mess.

"S-Sir Callaghan. Is it possible that they might kill us too?" His confidant asked nervously.

"They wouldn't. Unlike this organization in the past before I took over, they have a code of honor."

"Uhhhh...." The assassin by Callaghan's feet groaned.

"She's still alive! What do we do with this one, sir?"

"...." Callaghan looked at the woman dressed in ninja attire. "Have our men fetch her and get her treated."

"Shouldn't we just leave it to our business partners?"

"Our business with them is over. They already left new york with the payment. Which means, they left this one for dead. She's worthless to them, but she might be useful to us." Callaghan said before he spun his heel to return back to his car.

"You and you!" The confidant pointed at two of their men. "Get this girl treated."

"Right away." One of the men replied.

They both lifted the girl without any resistance. In their hands, she felt cold, almost like a corpse, yet she was still breathing even if it was faint. She was surely dying, but her will to live was strong.

In the end, the girl left by the league of assassins reached the doctor and got treated just in time.

----

"Barbara!"

"Huh? What?" Barbara snapped out of her daze.

"I said, I'm leaving. What's wrong with you? You've been preoccupied the whole day." Tanner said.

"I... was just thinking about something."

"Barbara... You're not still working on that case, are you?"

Barbara didn't respond and fixed her eyes at something far away.

Tanner sighed. "Are you really gonna do this? Captain reassigned you for a reason."

"Do you agree with him, Tanner?" Barbara's eyes were fixed on his but her hands were anxious as it tapped repeatedly on her desk.

"What he did was a little out of line, but-"

"No buts, Tanner. He didn't have the right. I'm not some kid that he should protect. I'm a detective goddammit!"

Bang!

She slammed her palm onto her desk causing all attention to turn to them.

But Barbara only needed to see someone's reaction to it. For him to know that she was really upset.

She locked eyes with their Captain who was looking at her with a worried expression.

His genuine concern only made her more irritated. She quickly grabbed her things and raced towards the staircase.

Tanner could only look at their Captain with a helpless expression, but he's glad that his friend was off the case.

----

"Yo~"

Barbara entered the apartment and was greeted by Elise. She ignored her and went straight to the couch by the coffee table where the files on the serial killer was on.

They've been doing this for a couple of days now and they both got comfortable being around each other in this setting. Elise has adjusted, more or less, working with someone that's not above or below her in rank. With Richie and the other bosses in new york under Callaghan, they just acknowledge each other and tried not to get in each other's way.

"Hmmm..." Elise looked at her as she paused cooking in the kitchen. "You seem to have a lot on your mind." She said as she continued cooking, flipping the french toast that was on the pan.

"You should relax for a bit. We don't have anything to do today but wait for a report from my men."

Three women were tasked to create a daily routine that would make them go by the area that the killer prowls in while Elise's men looked after them from a distance. The area was divided into three and was assigned to these three women. They were all obliged to wear ponytails, of course.

"Why did you become so talkative, Elise." Barbara furrowed her brows.

"Hmmm..." She pondered as she put the french toast on two separate plates and topped it off with maple syrup, butter, and mixed berries. "I don't know. I'm not like this with my men." Then, she took the two plates with her towards where Barbara was. "Here. This is yours." Elise offered while making a peaceful calm smile.

Barbara looked at Elise serving her french toast with a friendly smile and it seemed to help soothe her.

"Thanks..." She made a faint smile as she accepted the plate.

"Hey. You didn't think I forgot did you?" Elise said as she plopped on the couch.

"Huh?"

"The other night. Your teacher." Elise took a bite of the french toast. "Ish jush ishm (It's just isn't) *gulp* fair that you know mine and I don't know yours."

"Pffft" Barbara chuckled. "You're still stuck on that?" She paused to take a bite and chew on her food. "Thish ish really good!" She added a compliment at the end.

"Yeah. I just couldn't help thinking about it. Someone that good, and was even able to leave the league, contrary to Ra's' wishes. It's unthinkable." Elise explained before she took another bite.

"Well, is it really that hard to leave? I mean, you did too, right?"

Elise's mood turned sullen and she paused eating. "The league isn't a group you can just leave. Either you die in the league, or they throw you away... I was the latter. This is the first time I heard someone leaving on his own will and was able to. He must be really something for Ra's to let him go. He must really have his favor."

"Oh no, they didn't let him leave. My teacher forced his way out and defeated anyone in his way. Without killing anyone, for the record."

"Wa-" Elise's jaw dropped.

"Anyway, why would they throw you away?"

"Well..." Elise fixed her eyes on the floor as she reminisced. "The league was tasked to bring down Mr. Callaghan's major competitor at the time in exchange for something valuable to Ra's. During the battle, I pushed someone out of the line of fire. I saved him, but I got shot instead. That guy... I always helped him out during our training days, and he didn't even show the same courtesy when I got hurt. He left me there to handle multiple enemies alone and wounded. Even the others didn't even bother to help even after the battle was finished. I was on the ground bleeding out just waiting for my death. It if it weren't for Mr. Callaghan saving me, then I would have died there."

"..." Barbara was visibly troubled. "I'm not going to pretend like I know what it's like to be betrayed. But I do know when someone is being used. And you were used, Elise. They used you as a weapon and threw you away as soon as they couldn't find any use of you. Back then, you must have considered them as family."

"You're right. But now, I have my own family."

"No, Elise. Tell me how many times have they asked you to kill someone. I'm telling you this because I can see that you don't do this for the money. You're attached to them because they saved your life but that doesn't mean you owe it to them."

"What are you trying to say, Detective?" Elise said in a menacing tone as her eyes flickered with murderous intent.

But Barbara was unphased by her hostility. She leaned towards her and put her hand on Elise's shoulder. "I'm trying to say that if you don't want to do this anymore, get out while you still can. Do you think Callaghan really cares about you? Tell me one time that you got to eat with him like this without asking you to kill someone for him."

Elise's eyes that showed firmness before began to waver.

But it soon began to regain its resolve as she looked back at Barbara and slapped her hand away. "Then, aren't you doing the same thing, Detective? You don't exactly come here to just hang out. We have a serial killer to catch, don't we?"

Barbara leaned back and was speechless. It's true that she didn't come here for a friendly date but for something else.

"This is why you can only be sure a person is loyal to you if you own them. They didn't care about me in the league of assassins! They only ever cared about garnering favor with Ra's. Because he has power! Because he can give them whatever they want! And now that I have men I can trust, I now have their loyalty I craved so much."

Elise was breathing heavily from her outburst. Then, she broke eye contact with Barbara and looked away.

Barbara's gaze went to the floor. "Is this why you're so obssessed about holding the boss position?"

"..."

"I was right, huh?"

"So, what..."

"Look, it won't matter now that I screwed up by being a hypocrite, but I'll say it anyway." Barbara looked directly at Elise's eyes with conviction. "You don't need to be in a higher pedestal than anybody for them to be loyal to you. You just need the right people around you. Friends. Real ones. And you surely won't find them in your group where fear of the strong rules. That's not real loyalty."

"Friends can betray you too..." She said as she tried to avoid Barbara's gaze.

"Friends CAN betray our expectations of them..." Barbara recalled what happened earlier at station before she left. The image of the Captain showing genuine concern for her even though she was angry at him. ".. but they don't do it on purpose. Sometimes, they just do it because they think that was best for us. And when they see us hurt, they hurt too. Especially if they had something to do with it." She said wearing a regretful smile.

Elise's face looked troubled as Barbara's words dug deep into her heart. A longing that she thought was fulfilled by her job rose up again, hurting her more than it did all those years ago as she struggled with the pain of being left behind while she was recovering on a bed from the fatal wounds she had sustained.

-Boss!

The comms suddenly turned on...

Both of them were immediately alerted and Elise quickly picked it up. "Did you find him?"

-We have him on the run.

Elise and Barbara looked at each other. "Where?"