I basically made an AU by going "I really want Helena Wayne in the main universe, but I also want to keep my Power Girl/Huntress ship. So then I created this monster and I kinda love the concept now. This is the new future of Gotham. Hope everyone likes it, because that's just what it is ;P
DCAU, Batman, Superman and related characters © DC Comics
story © RenaRoo
All These Things About Destiny
Robin was not supposed to answer the signal without Batman. But that was only the first oddity of the night.
The commissioner raised an eyebrow at her but Robin stood her ground, hands solidly on her hips and gaze set forward. Appearances were important. And she needed the appearance of confidence and certainty so that she was not turned away out of principle.
"Where's Batman?" was the expectant question he started with. "Or Nightwing?"
"Batwoman couldn't make it either," Robin informed him without hesitation. "But don't worry, Commissioner, I'll handle whatever it is you needed."
She could tell by the way he looked at her, by the way his eyes shifted away from her and around the rooftop, expecting something, anything more than just her, that he was going to make their night unreasonably difficult. But Helena held her ground and her breath.
She was Robin. She had only the world trusted her enough to let her.
"You know, it wasn't that long ago that Batgirl was… different, too," the Commissioner pointed out.
"Things change," Robin answered, cocking her brow. "Justice stays the same."
Internally she cringed the moment the words came out of her mouth. It reeked of trying too hard and she fully deserved the odd glance over it earned her. Damn it damn it damn it!
"Apologies, Commissioner," a deep and familiar voice spoke from the shadows, immediately causing Robin to bristle. Nightwing, wearing his black and yellow uniform, hood over his head, stepped forward. "Enthusiasm is a trait that is desirable and unbecoming at the same time." Her half-brother then gave a knowing glare over the Commissioner's shoulder directed right at Robin. "She probably gets it from her mother."
While the officer's back was turned, Helena took the opportunity to drop her facade as Robin and petulantly stick out her tongue at Damian, giving herself bat ears in their unspoken tease over how the would-be Bat still hadn't achieved what he probably saw as his ultimate achievement of the mantle itself.
Despite his obvious refrain, keeping a collected expression as he listened to the Commissioner, Nightwing's fists were shaking at his sides, which was all the indication Robin needed that she was successfully getting to him.
"There has been a string of suspicious activity reported around the East End, mostly in the area that was damaged during the last flood," the Commissioner explained. "Mostly in the areas where damage was bad, but not enough to condemn or evict tenants. Which has made some people fairly unhappy."
"Lexcorp," Nightwing determined. "They seemed fairly intent on purchasing all of the damaged areas from the recent disaster. Wayne Enterprises has been in a bidding war." Nightwing looked steadily to the Commissioner, attention completely off of Robin. "Let me guess. Small fires. Electrical outages. Anything to ruffle feathers of insurance companies."
"We don't have solid evidence," the Commissioner warned. "And it would have to be damn good evidence to tie Lexcorp into it at all. Which is why I'd prefer to have this handled close to the belt between us—"
Robin didn't waste time, she knew where she was heading. And with the men's attention elsewhere, she easily fled from the rooftop down into the back alley of the police department where a few leaps from window to window got her quickly to her cycle. Just like she wanted.
It was her time to shine, and driving as quickly as she could toward Crime Alley was the only way, for certain, that brothers and fathers wouldn't have time to get in her way.
She was born for this work. Born to do it solo — not with Nightwing, not with Batman, not with the Batt or Batwoman or Batgirl or even the new Commissioner Grayson. She was born to show everyone that being the youngest child did not make her the least child.
Helena Wayne was the daughter of the original Batman and Catwoman. She had walked tight ropes since she was two. She had gotten a black belt when she was seven. And age thirteen? She was going to take down the world's self-proclaimed criminal mastermind, Lex Luthor.
It was her destiny to be great. And the opportunity had just presented itself to prove herself accurate.
The compound had been all she had really known. She was self aware, a part of her could acknowledge that to other that statement might have seen overtly sad, but it wasn't for her. It was just a fact, and it was a fact she hadn't minded.
She was provided everything in the compound, and the only love she had required to that point had been from the father she had always had since the first moments of her cloning process — Doctor Hamilton.
He provided her with everything, pointed in a direction for her to go in, and she obeyed. She gladly did anything for him.
Perhaps that was why, then, the man behind their program had taken such offense, such that he would take Hamilton away from her and hold him over her head so that he would do her bidding.
"Did anyone see you?" Luthor asked the moment she flew into his penthouse from the balcony.
Luther was only a human, only a man. Galatea could destroy him with a wrong glance of her heat vision, freeze his heart with a cold breath. But then he had proved to her that he was the only man in all the world who could return her father to her. And for that alone, she kept him alive and kept his agenda.
"No," she said simply. "I used heat vision to warm the circuits until they sparked. Like the others, the building will have a fire and the inspection will show that it was the building not being up to code. Another easy buyout fro Lex Corp."
"My dear, when you say things like that, it makes them sound downright simple," Luthor said, some amusement in his voice. He turned, a wine glass in hand. "To another successful endeavor."
"Doctor Hamilton's release?" she cut to the chase.
"Such a one-tracked mind," Luthor said, displeasure read on his face like a map. He put one glass of wine on the desk behind him. "You have such loyalty to him. He merely handled the test tubes, you know. It was my research, my company, my funding that led to your creation." He stopped and looked over her before sighing and walking away. "I should have stepped in sooner. I thought coming clean about your origins a year into your existence would be better than it had worked with Superboy. Obviously I miscalculated and should have come in even sooner."
Galatea rolled her eyes and put her hand on her hip as she looked off. "So you're not going to let me know where he is again? I'm getting tired of this game."
"We both are, dear," Luthor said. "One last building. I have it sent to your GPS already. You can take care of it tonight if you're feeling bold. I would go for something more fast acting than the old wire trick. Both to resolve my impatience and to get your job done all the sooner. Then we will have the good doctor's whereabouts all but revealed to you."
Distrusting but eager to fulfill her last mission, Galatea pulled the GPS from her belt and looked at the new coordinates. With a small leap, she was hovering above the floor and ready to fly off. She gave Luthor one last look. "I expect answers, Luthor. You call yourself my creator, but you've not been my father. Don't forget that. And don't forget what I can do to you if you've hurt him."
"My dear, I would never dream of going against my word," Luthor assured her.
Unimpressed, Galatea began flying out through the same balcony she had come through. GPS in hand, she was ready to the last building on her list.
Closer to the neighborhood which she almost always had been sent to, she could hear the sirens of firetrucks, no doubt responding to the new fire caused by her actions. A frown worked itself onto her face despite herself and she looked forward, ignoring it the best she could. She flew lower, so as to avoid drawing attention, keeping to the shadows of buildings and alleys.
That seemed like the best way to not be seen in Gotham, but then again, she should have known that compared to the residents, she was very unskilled at the task.
With a yell, someone small but wearing very heavy cleated boots came flying from the shadow above Galatea, landing a stomping kick down on Galatea's back.
It obviously was not enough to hurt the cloned Kryptonian itself, but the surprise and power behind it sent her flying off course, crashing down to the alley floor as her attacker backflipped off and landed on the edge of a dumpster.
The attacker was masked in shadows, only white eyes really standing out as they glared at Galatea. "I was responding to a fire alert," the gravelly, trying too hard voice of the girl in shadows said. "Wasn't expecting to see a culprit fleeing from the scene."
Galatea growled and got back into the air, contorting herself to get a clean shot of her heat vision at the girl in shadows. "I don't have time for your justice-for-all nonsense!"
The girl flipped out of the way, coming out into the light enough to show off her red-yellow-green colors. "No nonsense, just justice!" she shouted as she threw out a series of Batarangs which Galatea shot out of the air with her heat vision.
Only, the batarangs didn't simply drop from their trajectory as Galatea hit them. They exploded, blasting her in the face with a thick, unusual dust that immediately began to clog up her nose, mouth, throat, and eyes. She coughed, choking on the substance and clinging to her throat just before the vigilante got a few more kicks in. Enough to knock Galatea back.
"Heat vision, flying, invulnerability it looks like — it's like punching rocks. You're definitely Kryptonian," the girl spoke out loud before backing up, fists raised. "But no S. You're not from the House of El… some prisoner freed from the Phantom Zone? A long lost fugitive? Time traveler?" She stopped and tilted her head. "Clone?"
Angrily, Galatea forced her eyes open despite the burning and shot another bolt of heat vision in the girl's direction only to be dodged again.
"I'll take that as a yes," the annoyance said before landing behind Galatea and knocking her to the ground again. "Okay, clone, why are you in Gotham? What's your connection to Luthor? Why are you destroying this neighborhood? Or are all of those answers to my own questions?" She said cockily. "Better answer. Or don't. I'm a detective, I can find it all out even without your help. I'll just get the Justice League to take you to prison while I work on it."
Finally adapting to the particles, Galatea spat out what parts of it had been clogging her throat and mouth before she reached back and grabbed the girl by her kevlar covered neck, then she flipped her over onto her back with a hard THUD.
With the other girl down for the count, Galatea roughly rubbed at her eyes and nose, clearing them of the substance. She then, red eyed and sniffling, stood over the girl, looking at the R emblem on her chest. "You must be Robin, of Batman and—, interesting," Galatea deduced while the vigilante caught her breath. "I could take my turn beating you up, but I think there's a better solution here for both of us."
"I prefer getting punched to being someone's partner, but sure, we can try it your way," Robin replied breathlessly.
"You're a detective," Galatea continued. "You can help me find where Luthor is hiding my father, and I'll turn over all the evidence and testimony you need to tie Luthor to the string of arsons and building collapses the East End's had in the past month."
Robin tilted her head. "What, seriously?"
"Seriously," Galatea answered, holding out her hand. "Galatea."
For a moment, it seemed like Robin was going to stubbornly refuse the offered hand, but then she at last took it. "Robin. Of Batman and— but I'm solo tonight. Which is fine. Because I'm the only one you need."
"Alright then," Galatea agreed, a smile growing on her face. "Let's find my dad."
For the fifth time that night, Robin looked down to her wrist and say an urgent alert message. One for each sibling at that point. When she grew tired of seeing the flashing, she reached toward her gauntlet and began to block Red Hood's signal the same as she had all the others. How they got Jason involved was beyond her, though.
Just before she could turn off the signal, the Kryptonian clone — Galatea — was flying alongside her R-cycle and giving her a confused look.
Looking back, Helena squinted at her. "What?"
"Are you ever going to answer those? They've been going off since the moment we decided to work together. It's… distracting," she relied simply.
"No," Robin said, blocking Red Hood's signal and concentrating on the road.
"Turn here," Galatea ordered her. "The best way to get into Lex's penthouse is to fly up there. Through the balcony."
"Fine," Robin replied, turning into the alley and beginning to reach into her utility belt for her grappling gun. "Which floor is it? I'll adjust my trajectory and—"
It took everything within Helena to keep from yelping as the Kryptonian scooped her up, bridal position, and began flying her toward the balcony in question. She struggled, wriggling as much as possible to break free only for the Kryptonian to give her a curious look.
"You're too tense," she said.
"You're too— I could've gotten to the penthouse on my own!" Robin snapped back, glaring at Galatea as she tried to kick herself free. Again, it was like hitting rocks.
"If I drop you, you'll be a pancake," Galatea informed her.
"Cats always land on their feet," Helena responded without hesitation.
"Robins are birds," Galatea snickered to herself as she slowed down and began to land on the balcony in question.
"Shh!" Robin whispered to the super powered teenager before finally breaking free of Galatea's hold and flipping out of her grasp. She landed perfectly and began looking around the darkened room. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously
"Is this what detective work looks like?" Galatea asked. "You seem to have those shadows really on the run."
"Hush, you," Robin hissed, carefully walking further into the room. "This is about stealth. We don't want Lex or any of his cronies to know that we're in here and that you're going rogue." She reached into a different pocket of her utility belt and pulled out a penlight. Twisting it on, she then looked around the large space, searching intently for a desk or any sort of tech she could get into.
Unable to help herself, Helena's lip curled at the glassy furniture and white frosted decor. "Ugh. He's renting from Cobblepot. Of course he'd rent with Cobblepot until he had his own buildings in Gotham. What a…"
"None of this has to do with my father," Galatea noted almost angrily.
"It's called rapport," she replied. "Robins are supposed to do that when they're working together with someone. Put them at ease with some quips."
"Right, well, you're terrible at it," Galatea said firmly. "I can tell that and I've lived my whole life in an underground bunker."
"Hnn," Helena said, glancing back toward Galatea. "Believe it or not, you and I may just have that much in common. Though mine was more… batty and… cave than bunker. Also there was a giant dinosaur and an even more giant penny."
"That… sounds amazing," Galatea partially gasped.
"Yeah, it wears off, though. Especially when your br… Nightwings overrun the place with animals and next thing you know the robot dinosaur is getting used as a chew toy for the bat-dragon and you're still not allowed to get a horse," Helena muttered, mostly to herself.
"Your life sounds more colorful than my bunker with my dad," Galatea sighed fondly. "But he was so good to me. He… he's my father. He's my world. Even when everyone else saw me as a weapon or an experiment, he saw me as… he saw me as Galatea. And that's the best thing anyone has ever seen me as."
Turning around entirely, Robin faced the clone, looked deeply into her sad blue eyes, and smiled. "Hey. I can't wait to meet him when we save him. But just for the record, he's not the only one who knows you're Galatea anymore," she offered.
Galatea's face lit up in response, but the moment did not last too long, as there was a glint of metal behind Galatea's head that caught Robin's eye as well. A laptop!
"Score!" Robin grinned, racing over to the bed and pausing to curl her lip again at the polar bear comforter that Lex Luthor was probably sleeping under. "Oh, gross. I'm personally going to skin Luthor if I get the chance." She reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the laptop.
"You'll have to wait in line," Galatea replied, punching one fist into the other hand.
"Right," Robin replied, arching a brow before opening the laptop and sitting down on the floor with it. "I guess your father's safety is more important than the preservation of endangered species, sure."
Pulling a usb cord from her gauntlet, Robin then plugged into the computer and began allowing the ORACLE program to take affect. She was sure the actual Oracle was about to be incredibly pissed and discover that her system was being used without Robin so much as making a customary call-in, but such was life. Robin was solving her own case and getting her own pet Super on the side.
Tim Drake-Wayne, eat your heart out.
"How long will this take?" Galatea asked, hovering above Robin but likewise crossing her legs and sitting. "Every minute my dad is under Lex Luthor's control is a minute he could be hurt or starved or tortured or—"
"It'll take a few minutes, you have to give me time to figure out what I'm even looking for," Robin responded. "Besides, it's not like this is simple hacking. We're talking about Lex Corp firewalls and technical protections. Not only am I trying to beat the clock, I'm trying to not disrupt more files than necessary so that they can't see that we were here before we want them to."
For a moment, it seemed that Galatea found the information disquieting. She then widened her eyes and hovered closer to Robin, being just over her shoulder. "Search for Project Nuvo-Gen," she said with a sudden epiphany. "That's the project for creating me. Anything related to me and Doctor Hamilton would be under that."
"Alright, good," Robin answered, immediately typing it in and being rewarded with a plethora of results from the Lex Corp server. "Gotta love Lex's micromanaging, he's got wide access across his entire company—" She stopped, staring at the page in front of her. Her heart was pounding as she read over the name again and again. "This says Nuvo-Gen is being ran by Doctor Emil Hamilton," she informed Galatea.
"Right, that's my dad," she insisted.
"But… that doesn't make sense," Robin muttered, head racing with all the files she had read through over the years of known Justice League adversaries. "He's your dad? Emil Hamilton? Used to work for STAR Labs?" Before she could press further, though, a file change came up — something as recent as the last three days. Which was probably for the best since Galatea was getting visibly upset with the line of questioning. "Wait, it says here that you're supposed to be field testing this month."
"Yes, but my father didn't want that for me," Galatea explained. "He was going to get me out of the compound and we were going to try to live a normal life. We had all these plans—"
Robin's eyes narrowed as she read the exact description on the file before her. "Live in a rural Kansas town on a farm, just the two of you?"
"Yes!" Galatea said, delighted. She then paused, realizing something was devastatingly wrong. "Wait. How did you know that?"
"Galatea," Robin began, looking up to the clone. She was at a loss for words, not sure how she could even explain what the files were telling her.
Not that she had the time as she could hear the click of the door's lock.
Thinking fast, Robin grabbed Galatea by the ankle and yanked her down to the floor. "Hide!" she hissed, sliding herself under the bed.
"What?" Galatea began before seeing the door knob turning. She then slid under the bed with Helena, crowding her.
"I meant your own place!" Helena hissed, pressing against Galatea to no avail.
They both went silent as the door opened, however, and two pairs of nicely dressed shoes entered and closed the door behind them.
"She takes too much time, though I appreciate how all of the buildings meet the perfect excuse of accidental substandard conditions, I doubt that it's my preferences leading to the decisions being made by her," Luthor's voice said, walking around the room. "She's doing it to make sure there are no casualties."
"That's what we would want from her, though, isn't it?" a second voice answered. "Unlike the aliens we want her to value human life as much or more than her own."
Helena's stomach churned, feeling a cold, sinking sensation. She glanced toward Galatea in time to watch as her world fell apart.
"Daddy?" she whispered breathlessly.
"My life, Doctor. We want my life and my vision to be what she values above all else. And anything short of that would be disastrous to my plans for the future. Can you understand that?"
Doctor Hamilton sighed, sitting in a chair. "Of course I can. That's what she was made to do. That's why I earned her trust."
Robin watched as the shock and tears faded from Galatea's face and began to grow into something snarling, angry. A red glow was coming from them. "No," she whispered. "Tea! Don't—"
Before anything more could be said, Galatea flew straight up, flipping the bed over and hardly giving Robin time to move herself and the all-important laptop out of the way.
Both Luthor and Hamilton were shocked, but the only emotion that could be felt in the room was all from Galatea. Rage rippled out from her as strongly as the heat from her eyes.
"How dare you!" Galatea snarled. "Earn my trust? You created me! You gave me life! You were my father! Trust? You had my devotion! You had my love! And it was all a lie!? It was just a joke!?" she roared.
"Galatea! You've returned early," Luthor said, cool as a cucumber. "I wouldn't expect this sort of foresight and planning from you at this stage. But then again," he looked over Robin's way, his own lip curling in disgust. "I see the local pests have made their entrance as well."
"That line might've worked if I was a bat or rat or anything, but who thinks of songbirds as pests, Luthor?" Robin quipped back. "Sounds like you need new material."
"What he needs is a new face!" Galatea roared, zipping forward and surprising them all by grabbing Luthor and grabbing Hamilton by the collars of their shirts and flying out the balcony door.
That had been among the last things that Robin had expected and she had to recover from the momentary shock before making her way over to the balcony herself. "Galatea! Wait!"
She stopped right against the balcony railing, still five or so feet from Galatea and there she was dangling Hamilton and Luthor over the street.
"You want me to value human life less?" Galatea growled. "Good! I think I'm starting to see the appeal of it!"
"Galatea! You wouldn't!" the 'good' doctor begged.
The clone's head snapped in his direction, eyes aflame. "You don't know me. You don't know anything about me! You never did. Just like I never truly knew you. If you did, you'd know that I'm not exactly feeling like not dropping you at the moment."
"Galatea!" Robin screamed as loud as she could, getting the super girl's attention at last. "He doesn't know you! There's no way they can. And they don't deserve to," Robin said, thinking quickly. "But I've met you just for one night and I feel like I'm getting to know you already. You're eager, and thoughtful. You're loyal and you love — you've just had the wrong people in your life to love until now."
"Now you know me!?" Galatea snarled.
"No," Robin replied. "I just know that the girl I've met tonight would never forgive herself if she did what you're about to do right now." Hesitantly, she offered out her hand toward Galatea. "Please, don't do this. Don't be what they want you to be. Don't be a weapon. Be…. Be Tea."
Lips quivering, Galatea slowly turned around, both Luthor and Hamilton in tow, and slowly flew back toward the balcony, dropping her head as she lowered them both to the ground and all but slumping over into Robin's waiting arms after she released the men.
Helena was stunned at first but she quickly overcame it, hugging Galatea tightly and brushing a hand through the girl's hair. "It's okay. It's okay."
"You're the first person to ever call me Tea," the blonde sniffed against Robin's shoulder pad. "I really like it."
"I'm glad," Robin replied before glancing up and seeing Luthor trying to make a break for it. "Hold on just a second, Tea." She quickly pulled out her bolas and with one hand swung them around before throwing, wrapping around Luthor's legs and causing him to face plant. "See," Robin offered, letting Galatea look up enough to see her handiwork. "You were right, he will need a new face even without falling fifty stories."
Despite her tears and sobbing, Galatea smiled and snorted through her crying, wiping away tears that she could. "What-what do we do now?"
"Well, we did our part," Robin assured her, looking down to her gauntlet and activating the blue Nightwing signal rather than the yellow. "I think it's about time the cops did theirs."
Galatea sat on the sidewalk with her head low, more aware than she had ever been that the resilient material that made her compound's testing uniform was abnormal and something that caught the eyes of others when in public. It seemed like each time she looked up, she caught someone looking back at her.
But no eyes were worse than that of her so-called father's as he was pushed into the police car by none other than the police commissioner himself.
Lex Luthor was ranting to the available presses about there being "NO COMMENT" as he was put in a car of his own.
Everything was terrible and Galatea's world was gone — she had never missed the bunker of the compound more.
What she didn't expect was for Robin to come up behind her and drape a shock blanket around her shoulders.
"I don't really get cold," Galatea informed her. "I was put through subarctic temperatures once and was unaffected."
"It's okay," Robin said, dropping to sit on the sidewalk beside Galatea. "Sometimes the things we need most aren't really what we literally need. You know?"
"No," she answered honestly. "I don't know anything anymore."
Robin's frown grew, but in a move that was truly exceptional, she reached around Galatea's shoulders and pulled the clone closer to herself in a half hug. "Well, it's a good time to start. And I'll help you out any way I can."
"Do you really mean that?" Galatea asked.
"Yeah, I do," Robin answered.
"Thank you, Robin," Galatea said leaning forward and kissing her on the lips. When she pulled back she found Robin to be ramrod straight, eyes wider than saucers and face noticeably growing red. "Oh, Robin. I'm sorry. I thought that was how movies end."
"Uh. Yeah. They sure do. Uh. Wow. Okay," Robin sputtered incoherently. "Um. Let's start at the beginning of this movie, though. Start over. Get to know each other. Have a stupid misunderstanding we fix up. That sorta thing."
Smiling softly, Galatea put a hand over Robin's and felt warmth spread through her when the other girl did not pull back. "If it's all the same to you, Robin, I'd like to stay on this ending a little while longer. Just that way I don't have to worry about reality a little bit longer."
Robin wavered before nodding. "Yeah, okay. We should do that. We can do that. Plus I got to close my very first solo case. Take that, Dad! I mean Batman." She hesitated before rubbing a hand down her face. "Ugh. My rapport."
"Is getting better," Galatea assured her, leaning in to lay her head against Robin's shoulder.
If it was how Galatea's recent chapter ended, she was glad to have it also be where the new chapter of her life — one that was free and open to the whole world outside of the compound — could begin.