Flashbacks

- A Birds Of Prey Fanfiction

By Mikael Helbo Kjaer

Disclaimer: All characters portrayed in the television series "Birds Of Prey" is the exclusive property of their creators and is used here without their approval. No infringement is intended by the following work of fiction. The Story in the following work is the exclusive property of the Author indicated above and this work may not be posted, reproduced or edited without the express approval of the Author. No commercial gain may come from any reproduction of this work.

Summary: Over two years has passed since the Birds of Prey were shattered by several hard blows, the Birds and their allies seemingly dying one by one. But the Birds are not defeated yet.

Author's Notes: Now don't mind that the story starts out without explaining what happened to the Birds and why. This could be the beginning of a series, which is my vision of how a restart of the Birds of Prey show should be... Well if they had a very large budget and long episodes that is. This is the equivalent of the Pilot.

Prologue:

            Rain pounded the green grass in front of the three headstones standing shoulder at shoulder inside the fenced area that was the private Wayne section of Gotham's oldest graveyard. Many generations of Wayne's and more recently their friends were buried on this plot of land. Her hair stuck to her head forming almost a black helmet. She had colored it back to its original black this morning. Thick droplets of rain ran down the almost cape like heavy leather jacket she was wearing. Her cerulean blue eyes wandered from one headstone to the next.

Dinah Lance, 1985-2003, not all family is related through blood.

Barbara Gordon, 1968-2003, she was a friend, mentor and mother to us all.

Helena Kyle, 1979-2003, a true protector has many shapes.

Those were not the only graves here or nearby in which friends rested. There were the graves of the former Robins, the grave of her mother and of Jim Gordon, Barbara's father. Of course the grave of Reese was in the section owned by the Hawke family far away from here, but by far too many of her friends lay in this small section of this big world.

Slowly she advanced to stand between the graves of those she still after two years regarded as her family. Her eyes danced from grave to grave and although the wind and rain drowned out her words before they even got a few centimeters, she still spoke them. "We won a few days ago. The Joker is gone for good. I can go back to being me again. It has taken two years, but I could finally return here to New Gotham… I… I've missed you guys every hour of every day since I found out what happened. I messed up, we were all in pretty bad shape back then and I don't think we would have been able to stop him even if we had been at our best. It took me, Nightwing and Batman two years to finally get that bastard and then… well I am sure you both watched from up in heaven… I wished you guys were here now. We could have restarted the group, brought back the Clocktower and everything," slowly the woman sank to her knees in the muddy grass. Her tears were invisible against the rain pelting her face.

"I don't know if there is anything left of my old life, but I am going to find out," she whispered and pushed herself back up to look over at the faint glow given off by the city. Her hyperaware senses easily caught the two men that slowly walked up to stand behind her. She knew, who they were, before any of them spoke. An umbrella was angled in over her head.

"Thank you, Alfred," she said and took the handle as he offered it. She stood facing her father and his old butler.

"Yes, thank you, Alfred," her father said in his deep baritone voice. The butler nodded knowingly and walked away in the heavy rain, leaving both Waynes holding their umbrellas.

Helena once again turned and looked at the graves. "It is a bit morbid to be standing on your own grave," she remarked and marveled that she could be so familiar with a man that she had never met before all this misery began.

"I've never liked coming here, but it is necessary at times. All these of the people here died long before their time and undeservedly so," Bruce Wayne said and looked over the graves of the people he knew or only barely remembered.

Helena knew that much of the reason for her father's entire career as Batman was within the black iron fences surrounding the Wayne plot. "I wanted to say hello before I moved back to the town," Helena explained.

"I figured you would go to see them as the first thing… Are you sure about your new plan?" He looked at her, but Helena just stared ahead.

"Yeah, there are no more two-bit hoods in my immediate future. I am going to go for bigger fish," she said as if from a far, "besides Dick has the two-bit hoods under control."

"Helena, I have set up all the money like you asked and I am keeping all our aliases and the like alive as well," he said.

Helena looked at the older man. "That sounds almost like the beginning of a goodbye," she bristled.

"It might be," he muttered and looked over his shoulder at Alfred, who sat at the gate in the town car. He sensed the butler's opinion from a far.

"What is going on," Helena said and if she had not worn contacts, her eyes would have shown her cat's eyes clearly.

"I have lied to you and a couple of other people for these last two years," he said. Helena just kept silent awaiting his explanation.

"I've already explained some of it to you before. It began, when I just barely rescued you from him. I had to bring him to think you were dead, so we agreed that you'd change your identity after you first recovered then later join me in my… the battle to defeat him. And so Helena Kyle died. Now the Joker is dead and there is nothing left of his organization that is a threat, and she can be resurrected" he said.

Helena looked at him impatiently, but she knew her brooding father well enough by now that he would get to the point when it was time and not before.

"I did however lie to you back then in the Hospital, when I told you that I was only able to rescue you from the Joker's den. I got both Barbara and Miss Lance out of his machines before they killed them. They were both a lot worse off than you for different reasons. They just barely survived," he explained.

Anger and adrenalin pumped through her body. Muscles suddenly grew much stronger and she felt pent up fury and resentment long hidden resurface. Helena hammered a fist into her father's jaw and watched as he flew across the graveyard to land under a tree. She leapt after him and landed in a crouch. "You condescending bastard," she growled.

Helena was about to punch her father again, when she noticed he made no moves to avoid her violent attack. He was sat limply against the stem of the tree and awaited his punishment. Slowly she felt reason return to her mind and she rose to her full height. Helena shifted over to staring into her father's eyes.

"I was afraid of losing you, so I arranged for you all to be declared dead, then I had you moved to different places in the world to recover in secret. If you recall I wasn't always with you in the beginning. Those times I was not handling my business, I was off to see to Barbara or Miss Lance. In time I told them what I told you, that only one of you had survived and that I was handling the Joker with a little help from Nightwing. I hadn't planned to include you in the beginning, but when Detective Reese died, I couldn't in good conscience keep you out of my war anymore," Bruce Wayne slowly rose to stand and casually brushed off most of the dirt from his expensive trousers.

"Where are they now?" Helena couldn't help asking.

"They both have safe lives under false identities here in the US. I didn't want any of you to be in any danger if I failed so I pulled in a few favors from a few other superhero and government friends. They arranged for new lives and laundered the money I set aside. I really didn't know who they became or where they were," he explained.

"You made them disappear," Helena said almost breathlessly.

"Well it was friends, who hid them. They knew where they put them. And as of this morning we know some of that was well. For security reason most of them couldn't give us complete directions, but I did get some places to start," he reached inside his jacket and pulled out a brown envelope. Helena slowly took the envelope and walked towards the gate.

Her father walked over to look at a big headstone just outside the iron fence. "I have kept our daughter safe, Selina. I got that bastard, maybe now she will start a new life," Bruce remarked and turned to walk to his town car. He saw his daughter's elegant sedan drive up into the hills.

And somewhere behind him a several years old motion sensors stopped the closed circuit camera's recording.