Supergirl broke the hinges off the door as she burst into one of the private rooms in Gotham Central Hospital. She gazed in horror as her super-senses confirm the truth of Robin's phone call. There lied her best friend on the hospital bed, her spine severed just above the waistline by a rusty bullet. While she had not been raped like the doctors initially feared, but she would never walk again.
"Barbara!" She cried.
She was halfway to the bed when the palm of a green gloved hand appeared in her face.
"She needs rest," informed Robin. "When she wakes up, she needs to see the both of us."
Supergirl joined Robin at the bedside and clasped onto Barbara's hand.
"Who did this?"
"She woke up earlier and told Bruce. It was the clown. Caught the bastard an hour ago."
"Good. That's all that matters."
Supergirl grasped Barbara's hand even tighter, waiting for her best friend to grasp back.
/
"Barbara, hi! What's … what's wrong?"
Barbara blew her nose into a Kleenex and wiped the tears off her face as she gave a deep inhale through her nose.
"It's Robin. We broke up."
There was silence on the other end. Barbara started to say Kara's name when she burst through her bedroom window and embraced her with a tight hug, creating a gust of wind that circled several times around the room.
"I am so sorry! Here, I know just how to make you feel better!"
Kara quickly pulled Barbara into her kitchen and began whipping up a giant bowl of hot fudge ice cream with whipped cream and cherries for them both. After some verbal motivation, Barbara started eating and began confessing what had lead up to the break-up.
As it turns out, she and Robin had gotten back to the Batcave after a successful take-down of The Penguin, but rather than celebrating, Robin berated her for using deceit to manipulate Penguin's goons into doing exactly what she wanted. Barbara pointed out that, despite the risk, her plan worked, and it wasn't any different than what Bruce did.
"Yeah, and that's what's wrong with Bruce. I thought you'd be smart enough to see that."
Barbara fired back accusing Robin of becoming the very things she hated about Bruce – cold, stoic, never thinking he could be wrong, caring more about being a hero than a being normal,… voices were raised and flocks of bats scattered away, and now they're both single.
"Hey, don't worry about it," advised Kara. "There's plenty more fish in the sea. And besides, you're way too smart for him anyway."
"Well, he's all yours if you want him again."
"Thanks, but I think I'll wait until I meet someone I can't kill in bed."
Both girls smiled at that remark.
"Hey, I know what will make you feel better! Next week, it's spring break for both of us. So how about we spend some girl time together? Work the mall, do each other's nails, beat down a few thugs, whaddya say?"
Barbara stopped eating to wipe the chocolate dripping down from her lips. "Actually, yes. I could go for some fun."
"Hey, that's what best friends forever are for!"
Kara reached and grabbed Barbara's wrist so that their matching BFF bracelets were touching. Barbara responded by grasping her BFF's wrist back.
/
Barbara's fingers started twitching and then closed themselves around Supergirl's hands. Kara looked up in joy as she saw her best friend's eyes slowly open.
"Thank Rao!" She softly exclaimed. "Don't worry, Babs! I'm here for you!"
Once Barbara noticed Kara's face, she gave a small smile in response. Her head slowly turned to see Robin trying to hold back manly tears.
"Robin … can you … please leave?"
"But Babs, this is the only time I can see you before I leave for Jump City."
"Seeing you here is good enough. And thanks for the flowers."
Robin sighed depressingly. "OK, then. Stay strong."
After Robin had left, Barbara started to sit up, not letting the pain her body was still in stop her. Kara leaned forward to help her, but Barbara gave up and laid back down, grasping both of Kara's hands with both of hers.
"Babs, we're gonna get through this, I promise! I know the recovery will be long and hard, but I will be there every step of the way! I'll make everything better for you, I swear it!"
"Kara, we're not friends anymore."
The shock of this statement was only matched by what she felt it in her hands, and as Barbara let go, she saw the BFF bracelet Barbara had worn, matching with her own, unfastened and resting in her palm.
"Barb … what are you saying?"
Barbara answered with complete sternness in her voice. "I don't like you anymore. I don't want to see you ever again."
The shock was now mixed with confusion, fear, and every other negative emotion as Kara began to feel tears build up in her eyes.
"But … why?"
"Because you said you'd always be there for me. You weren't there for me. You hurt me."
"But I … I didn't do … I'd never want this!" Kara was desperately trying to avoid crying with the sudden feeling of emptiness now spreading inside her heart.
Sorry to be doing this to you, Barbara said to herself, but if you're going to be hurt, it'd might as well be by me directly than by another freak using me as a puppet.
"I don't care. Now go away."
"But..."
"I said GO AWAY," shouted Barbara, trying to look and sound as angry as possible, "you … ALIEN SCUM!"
Startled at hearing the bigoted phrase often said by Luthor coming from Barbara's mouth, Kara crumpled up the bracelet in her hand and quickly flew out of the room and out of the building.
/
Kara and Barbara ended their spring break at the Kent farm in Smallville, gazing up at the night star while sitting down on a picnic blanket. It took Barbara nearly an hour, but she finally finished identifying every single star in the undiluted countryside sky.
"That is incredible!" Kara said in amazement. "You only had to stop five times to take a drink!"
"Really? Ever since I was little, everyone else found that incredibly boring."
"You're not boring at all. You're the most fun person I've ever met!"
"Gee, thanks!"
"But I think you missed a star."
"I did?"
"LHS 2520, right there on the beak of The Crow."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."
"Did you?" Or did you just not want to remind me of Krypton?"
Barbara sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just that you saw your home destroyed, and I have no idea what that must be like, so I didn't want to trigger…"
"It's fine, don't worry about it! Yes, I'd never wish what happened to Krypton to anyone, but everything I've lost I've found again here. Earth is my home, the Kents are my family, and you Barb, you're my best friend!"
"Really? Thanks! I've never had a best friend before."
"Do you like it?"
"Most definitely!"
/
Not guilty by reason of insanity. Same as always for every freak in Gotham. Back to Arkham. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Supergirl hovered a mile above Arkham Asylum, waiting for the police escort to deliver the evil clown back to his all-expenses-paid home. As the escort approached, she heard her cousin approach from behind.
"What are you doing, Kara?"
"Waiting until that clown enters my sight."
"And what will you do then?"
"I'm gonna melt his brain into soup, and rip that evil smile off his face."
"What if the police try to stop you?"
"I'm the Girl of Steel. They can't stop me."
"What if I try to stop you?"
Kara didn't answer. Instead she flew straight down towards the asylum entrance. Superman flew after her and quickly caught up. The two engaged in a fight that soon ended with Clark holding tightly onto his young cousin from behind.
"Kara, I know you're upset because of what happened to your friend..."
"She wasn't my friend!"
"I'm sorry, you're best friend..."
Kara's anger intensified. "She wasn't that either!"
"Then what, wait … were you two..."
Clark's eyebrows raised themselves up as he realized the only option left, while the rage within Kara finally reached its boiling point. Clark quickly turned her to face skyward as she let out a deafening scream of sorrow and fired two massive laser blasts through the clouds above.
/
"I love you, Barb! I love you more than anything else in the whole universe!"
Kara stood with tearing eyes facing her best friend, who could only star back in confusion.
"Say what?"
"Remember last year, when Robin and I had our first kiss and wound up accidentally breaking his skeleton?"
"Uh … yeah."
"Clark realized I needed to get my strength under control, so he sent me to Themyscera to train with the Amazons. There I was paired up with Donna…"
"Donna?"
"Yeah, you know! Wonder Girl! And during our training together, she helped me discover the truth about who I am, in terms of physical attraction, anyway."
"OK…"
"But I only thought of her as just a friend. But you, Barb, you're more than a friend! You're more than my best friend! You're the one type of person I never had back on Krypton! You're beautiful and brilliant and amazing at everything and I … I … I've fallen in love with you!"
At this point, Kara had fallen down on her knees and was grasping onto Barbara's hands while staring at her in the eyes. Barbara stared back, still in utter confusion.
"Kara, can I … have my hands back?"
"Oh, sorry."
"Yes, um, look, Kara … it's not that I don't … no, what I mean is I'm … I'm certain that I'm … I need to go now."
"But…"
"Sorry, Kara, I just … I just don't know!"
Barbara hopped on her Batcycle and made her way to its secret garage behind her house. She went in to visit her father, who was in the living room going through photographs of old cases. Barbara desperately wanted to talk about what Kara had said, but her father seemed too eager to talk about his old case files. Wanting to get her mind off her teenage romance crisis, she joined in with her father's conversation topic.
Then there was a knock on the door. Barbara answered it. Then there was a gunshot and a laugh.
/
Kara sat on a chair directly facing Ma Kent, too ashamed and too weak to face her in the family dining room.
"I'm sorry for keeping secrets from you, Ma."
"Why did you? Did you think I wouldn't approve of you being in love with a girl?"
"I didn't think you'd approve of me being in love with anyone."
"You're right. You're still too young for that."
Ma Kent tilted up Kara's chin so that they were looking eye-to-eye, and then softly took her hands in her own.
"I was heartbroken quite a few times before I met Pa. I know how empty and scared and angry you must feel. And I lost a good friend to a drunk driver who walked away unharmed and a fairly light sentence. I wanted to kill the bastard. But all the sadness and hate within me … I didn't want it."
Ma Kent hugged Kara like she was her own daughter.
"I wanted to go back to being the girl who wanted to make others happy, and that's what we all want you to be. You should never forget how you've been hurt, but you shouldn't let those feelings take you over. You should learn from them, and let those lessons guide you as you become a better person.
"When you fight the bad guys, never fight out of anger, but to show bad people can do nothing as long as good people can stop them. And never give up on love. There are so many people out there who would be more than happy to have you as a soulmate. But until you find that someone, just catch the bad guys and stay happy!"
/
Barbara Gordon finally had recovered enough to sit in front of her computer. After putting on her new glasses, she opened up her personal hacking program Oracle and logged into the databases of the Gotham City Police Department, Gotham City Department of Justice, Arkham Asylum, and Wayne Enterprises.
She intercepted e-mails from her father and other figures of power and edited them to match her own wishes. Within an hour, she had gotten the insanity plea ruled irrelevant for the clown, finally making him eligible for death row. She had security at Arkham beefed up to include shock collars and shackled ankles for all prisoners. And finally, she changed results from tests done in Wayne Labs, making sure than only projects she approved would ever go forward.
"Sorry father, but the clown proved his point. He just missed his target.
"And thank you, Bruce, for showing me how to be a puppeteer. I promise I'll be the best the world has ever seen!"