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Disclaimer: I don't own DC or any of their characters, but I seriously doubt anyone else on this website does either.

Chapter 1

The lights flickered on, making her eyes squint shut, feeling as if someone was pulling needles out of them. She didn't have control of her head when she tried to look around, so it bobbed off to the side. She saw that her hands were behind her back and she could feel something heavy holding them together. When she looked she realized that she was leaning against a pole with her arms wrapped around it.

"Who is there?" She heard herself ask.

"Oh! It looks like the Little Batgirl is awake." His sentence was followed by a long chilling laughter. Cass knew that voice.

"Joker."

…

(Earlier)

"I know you're still seeing him." Bruce's cowl was pulled back, but Cass didn't think that it made him less intimidating. But she had to stand firm – it was for him.

Cass was in her apartment when Bruce swung in with his signature scowl on his face. She was finishing putting on her gloves when she turned to look at him. "So."

"I'll suspend you from patrols," he threatened. She dared to ignore him even though her stomach felt like it dropped into a pit.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "he is alone."

"He's a criminal." Bruce retorted back.

"Don't care." She fit the mask on her head and put her boot on the windowsill. "He will change."

"I don't have to read body language to know that was a lie, Cassandra."

"He wants to know you see him. Wants you to let him come back."

"That won't happen."

"That is why he fights." She shook her head at his silence and fired out a line. She knew Bruce would be angry. Babs still didn't approve, but she kept her thoughts to herself knowing Cass wouldn't listen. Cass didn't care. Jason accepted her. She accepted Jason. Of course, Cass didn't like the fact that he killed, but he was trying to hold back. Right now it was like his smoking, meaning he'd do it when she wasn't around, but she was trying to make him see that he didn't have to.

Sometimes she would watch him fight without him noticing that she was there. His blows were angry, but not as angry as before. He was angry at the people he was fighting now, not at himself. With every movement she could see that his thoughts were disgust with the people he hammered his fists into.

Cass launched herself onto a building. Watching the headlights of cars trickle passed as the night grew old. She had stopped three muggers, four rapists, two robberies, and two gang fights. "Batgirl." Babs called through the com-link, so she waited for her to say the next location. Instead she heard a sigh. "Batman is not happy, you know – even for Batman." Cass kept silent. She didn't want to hear any more, but she knew Bruce asked Babs to talk to her. "I know you like him, but you have to see that -"

"You like D – Nightwing. No difference." Cass held her breath and leaned forward when she saw a couple walk by with their hands interlocked. The woman looked up at the man with a smile. Cass could read that she trusted the man. And he trusted her.

"Jason is dangerous. He's taken lives – dozens of them."

"I took. But you still accepted." Cass's jaw tightened, she had feeling she was going to be here for a while. She sat down and swung her legs over the ledge with her hand propping her head. Her eyes followed the couple until they turned a corner.

"That's different. You feel remorse. He doesn't."

"No. Like Huntress. He is like Huntress now." She could hear Babs sigh again, but she quickly flipped herself up on her feet and into a stance after hearing footsteps behind her.

Jason walked towards her, and an instant smile came on her face. Her finger turned the com-link off before Babs could finish her sentence, "Batgirl relationships -"

She hugged him tightly. "Miss me?" He asked and she nodded letting go. "Good, because I -" he trailed off and rubbed his neck. She couldn't see the embarrassment on his face, because of the hood, but she imagined it'd be just as red. She never thought that a man like Jason could feel embarrassment over her, but it made her happy all the same.

Her eyes trailed down to his gloved knuckles. They were damp, but there were streaks of blood in them like they had been scrubbed. She didn't want to ask so she pulled off her cowl, while he took off his helmet. She planted a kiss on his cheek, then noticed a cut on his shoulder. It wasn't deep, but it bled through his jacket. Her hand touched it, and his eyebrows wrinkled together as he followed it, wondering what she was doing. "What happened?"

"Didn't even notice it was there." Jason shrugged and waved her hand away, but she was already grabbing a thin strip of bandages. "Come on, it's not that big of a deal."

"I know." He rolled his eyes behind his mask and took off his jacket, knowing that arguing against her was pointless. She concentrated on wrapping it around delicately with her fingers. "It reminds me."

He smiled knowing exactly what she was talking about, remembering how badly hurt he was that night. And how she slept next to him sharing her heat until he was better. He remembered the quiet sound of her breathing, and how soothing it really was. He wished that every night could be like that, but he knew it would be too dangerous for her if he saw her too often. Even though he knew she could dodge bullets, he didn't want to take any chances.

"Something wrong?" She asked, when she was finished putting the bandages back in a compartment in her utility belt.

"I was just thinking about how great you are."

"Liar." She pushed on his chest as she pulled her mask back on.

"You're right, I think about that all the time." He grinned slyly, pulling his arms through the sleeves of his jacket, as he watched her shake her head with a smile forming through the mask. She pointed her finger out off to the side of her. "Right, back to business." He put on his hood. She fired a line and he followed after her.

Cass dropped in a crouch in the alleyway. Making sure her foot avoided the crushed can near the dumpster so she didn't make noise. Her eyes followed the man walk down the alleyway with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his torn trench coat. His choice of fashion wasn't what caught her attention, it was the way he moved. At first she thought it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, but now that she was up close she knew something was off about him. The man had his shoulders hunched over, but his footsteps were loud, then soft when his full foot fell onto the asphalt. He was pretending to be homeless, but she didn't know why.

Her eyes darted off to the side, seeing Jason asking with his body why she was following the man. Her head tilted out towards him then back at the man. Jason knew what that meant. Just shut up and follow. Slightly annoyed, he watched her trail closer to the man in the trench coat. Her focus was so intent, it was as if she was a different person. He knew that to her, she was. She was Batgirl right now.

Cass pressed herself against the wall, forming into the darker shadow. The man walked and trailed his fingers on the edge of the brick, until he stopped. His hand caught on a handle and pushed open the door.

Jason's eyes sharpened. It was the side door to an old two story building he knew had outdated factory machines in the basement and first floor. It was supposed to be torn down, because it was deemed unsafe, but there was a risk of damaging the other buildings around it, so the city never tore it down. He didn't think a homeless man would want to risk living in a building like that. Before the door shut, Cass snaked in, and so did he.

Cass's lenses switched to night vision, but the man had disappeared. Massive machines were dusty and closed, meaning no one had used them since the building had been abandoned. A hand gripped on her arm. She turned seeing Jason pointing at narrow stairs leading to the basement. She nodded and followed him to the bottom step.

Jason's hand was about to push on the cracked door, when a light switched on.

"Hiya, Puddin'!" Harley Quinn's voice echoed excitedly through the door. Cass could see Jason's muscles tighten. She grabbed his hand and pulled him back.

"Quiet Harls." Joker's voice rang with annoyance.

"Did you manage to kill the bat while you were away?" She asked sweetly.

"Oh you know the answer to that." Joker spat his anger at Harley, but Cass could almost feel her knees giving as if he was talking to her. She had never seen the Joker before. Only in pictures and the feeds Bruce let her watch. She remembered seeing the Joker's movements, but they were hard to decode. He was unpredictable and that's what scared her.

Her eyes studied Jason, and his free fist was clenched around his hand gun. The one she had a hold of was squeezing tightly until her fingers felt like they were going to disconnect from her hand. He was ready to fight. But she squeezed tighter and pulled him back a little more. She shook her head when his whipped around to look at her.

Jason didn't calculate that he'd find him this quickly and with Cassandra with him. The Joker was so close – he had to make him pay. But she was right there, holding onto his arm like that was the only piece of him that was left. She tugged harder, as his teeth were grinding together until he tasted dust. He's right there.

Cass didn't want to be here. She didn't want to see Jason lose control. Joker was dangerous, and too hard to read. She didn't want to risk seeing Jason get hurt, because she knew she didn't have Bruce's intelligence and reading the Joker was unreliable. She shook her head more frantically this time and pulled him back up the steps, but he pulled back, until they let go staring each other down through their masks.

The lights turned on. And Cass's eyes widened with her heart beating so fast she thought it stopped. "Well, well this is interesting, isn't it? A bat and a dead bird."