Rose was, as usual pacing around the grandfather clock that served as an entrance to the Batcave. No one else was home, they wouldn't be until dawn, but Rose couldn't stomach the idea of leaving without first saying goodbye to Bruce. He would be disappointed, maybe even angry, but he had shown her that she was worth more than she'd thought. Even though it hadn't worked out with her as part of Batman Inc. she wanted to thank him.
Almost two hours had passed since Rose had left Grayson and returned back to the manor, and Rose was growing restless waiting for someone to return. She couldn't hear any sound in the house and she assumed even Alfred was either out or asleep. She paced the room a few more times before she moved to the grand piano in the room and sat on the bench. She was tired of waiting and had nothing better to do.
Idly she tapped a few keys on the piano, her mother had given her lessons as a child, but that had been years ago. With a quiet creaking sound the grandfather clock opened into a passageway. At first Rose thought that Grayson or Bruce had returned but when no one entered she looked back down at the piano. Was that the secret to opening the door?
Quickly Rose moved through the passageway, the entrance shutting behind her as she begun to descend into the darkness. There were lots and lots of stairs and she could only faintly see what was in front of her. Finally she reached the main chamber of the cage and looked around the massive place once more.
Something caught her eye that she hadn't seen before, a glass case filled with old costumes. Jason's Robin costume was one of them and she slowly approached the glass looking examining the costume within. /He/ hadn't given up. Rose glared at the costume and slunk down crossing her arms. Why did it seem that no one believed in her? Just when she'd thought she'd had a chance it had been crushed.
She stood back up, she didn't need to say goodbye. All Rose wanted to do was run, she didn't want to ever return here, she was done with the vigilante game for good. As she turned to leave the cave she saw another costume, a Batgirl costume. To be more precise, Cassandra Cain's Black Bat costume.
Rose had fought Cain once, when Batgirl had been injected with Deathstroke's serum. Rose had fought her, and then the two had fought Deathstroke together. Their skills weren't very different at all, Cass wasn't reckless but she definitely wasn't careful, and she was lethal, very very lethal.
Suddenly Rose got an idea and a very stupid one at that. She moved around the Batcave working quickly and quietly making sure not to touch anything. She came across a closet that housed extra costumes for the masked vigilantes and at the tip top on a shelf was a box marked Cass. Rose grinned as she climbed up and grabbed the box, revealing an extra costume of Cassandra Cain's.
Rose looked at the costume, then back to her own body, then back, before stripping out of her own costume and into Cass', mask, cape and all. She walked back to the glass cases and examined her reflection in the case that had the other Black Bat costume. This was a horrible idea but Rose couldn't help herself as she moved to the entrance of the batcave. Grayson had forbade Ravager from going out alone… But he never forbade Batgirl from going out alone, and she knew exactly where she was going.
It was a little less than an hour later when Rose arrived outside of the old house that she and Jason had once shared. She knew there was no way he'd be here this time of night and she felt relatively safe. Rose still had her key but she had a feeling he'd changed the locks, and even if he hadn't she didn't need anyone knowing she'd kept the key.
Instead Rose was quick to smash the bay window of the living room that was at the front of the house. An alarm started going off but she pain no mind to it as she moved to the garage. Jason had set it up for himself, she knew no police would come and even if Jason did get the message he wouldn't be here for at least another twenty minutes, more than likely he was at his hideout in the city.
Rose opened the garage door and saw her motorcycle and smiled a little bit. She still had the key for that too and quickly turned on the engine revving it loudly. She sat on the bike glad she finally had her means of transportation back. Within minutes she had crashed through the garage door and down the hill the house was on, back to the main highway.
She was going faster than she had ever gone, the speedometer couldn't even calculate her speed as it was well over 100mph. She was back in Gotham a little over ten minutes later. Looking at the clock on the bike Rose determined she had about another hour before she'd need to return to the manor, that was plenty of time for a little fun.
Rose was sure not to go to any side of town she knew any of the real bats would be on. It would be game over for sure if she were caught. Instead she stuck to the piece of town she knew had once been Cass'. Jason had given her a rough layout of which bat had territory where, ever since Cass had left Gotham she knew this side of time was only covered by Dick and Bruce from time to time.
She parked her bike a few blocks away before climbing up to a rooftop of an apartment building. Rose watched the city below for a few minutes, just like Grayson had taught her. A few cars passed by, but nothing too suspicious, there were no real movements below and Rose wondered if maybe she should go look for trouble like she used to. Instead she channeled her inner batgirl and waited, quietly, patiently.
It wasn't long before a car sped down the street before her eyes, seconds later three cop cars with sirens wailing raced after the car. Rose smiled, jackpot. She jumped off the roof down to her bike below before heading onto the street behind the cops and the other car.
As she followed the cars she made sure to stay at least a block or two away so that the cops wouldn't see and suspect her. Rose realized she was getting dangerously close to Grayson's territory as the chase continued and she struggled with whether or not she should let the car go or hurry and end the chase in her/Cass' territory. What would Batgirl do?
Eyeing her one and only chance Rose moved east a block before speeding up, she could hear she'd passed the cops and was just ahead of the getaway car when she quickly cut it west, crossing just in front of the car. She turned right before she'd gone too far, but her crossing in front of the other car so quickly was enough to get the driver to slam on the breaks, over correct, and run into a street lamp.
The airbags of the car went off and Rose grinned in triumph. The cops pulled up to the scene just in time to drag the driver from the car. Rose pulled off to the side of the road, watching for a moment. One of he cops ran over to where she was but she remained calm.
"Thanks Batgirl." Was all the cop said and Rose nodded. "You probably already knew this but the suspect is wanted in three states for murder and sex trafficking." Rose nodded again, smiling under the mask. "Thanks again." The cop said before turning back to the scene and Rose turned her engine back on deciding it was time to go back to the manor.
She smiled smugly the entire way back, turned out she actually had done something right this time. And for some reason she was no longer wanting to leave the manor and Grayson's mentorship. Sure he could be a real Dick –snicker- but Rose wasn't going to give up yet, if she could pull off being Batgirl she could deal with Grayson's lessons and maybe even do right by him. It was worth a shot at least.
Being Batgirl had really opened her eyes and Rose was thrilled with herself for the moment. She parked her bike outside and quietly tip-toed back into the manor, she knew she was still alone and was safe for the time being. She sped up to her room and stripped out of the Batgirl costume into her pajamas. She hid the Batgirl costume under the mattress and prayed Alfred didn't change the sheets daily.
Rose had only lay down her head and begun to drift off to sleep when there was a light rapping at her door. Her stomach dropped, someone knew. Rose knew it was too good to last and she couldn't believe how stupid she'd been. She stood up and opened the door, Grayson stood tall outside the door, no sign of his previous anger remained on his face.
"I'm really glad you're here." He said, the beginnings of a smile making its way to his face. "I was afraid you'd leave after what happened tonight." Dick said.
"Ha, you think you can get rid of me that easily?" Rose said calmly, maybe Dick didn't know after all.
"Well, I sure hope not. I realize I was really hard on you tonight… I just want to see you succeed and what I said was true, if you weren't better than those goes it could have been dangerous." He said again hinting at a smile.
"You really think I was better than those guys and not just lucky?" Rose smirked.
"Okay don't let it go to your head." He said ruffling her hair. "Get some sleep and we'll try again tomorrow, you deserve it for being such a good sport and coming back here." Grayson said turning to walk away.
Rose said nothing else, afraid she would spill the entire story if she opened her mouth even to breath. "Night." She said biting her tongue and quickly closing the door before she could even hear his response. She sighed and slunk back to her bed, Rose was glad that was over, all of a sudden she felt guilty for lying to him, but she couldn't take back her actions now.
Rose was way too sold on her double life as Batgirl to ever go back. Even if she had to keep it a secret from everyone.
