CHAPTER 20 | CAPTIVE

January 5th, 2039

6:43PM

Something cold and hard was pressing into her temple. When she came to, it was all she could feel. Her eyes cracked open to meet blinding, fluorescent light and she immediately squeezed them shut, a shiver running down her spine. It took a few tries before she could finally get her bearings. Face-to-face with stark white, polished tiles, hand twisted awkwardly behind her, body slumped.

From her opposite temple came a dull throb, one that synced to her heartbeat and then radiated throughout her whole body. Barbara shivered again, and moved to press her left palm against the floor, to right herself, when she realized that her hand was trapped.

While she'd been relatively calm at first, Barbara suddenly realized she had no recollection of how she'd gotten….here.

The last thing she remembered came back to her in short bursts, the footsteps behind her, the pain in her temple, the ambush, struggling, fighting. She had tried to pull her gun, but it had been too late. She'd fallen, her head had hit the ground.

Barbara turned to find her left wrist in a handcuff, the other side of the cuff attached to an iron railing that was bolted to the wall vertically. The sterile room was stark white and vacant, but a long mirror ran the length of the opposite wall. Though there was no way of confirming it, Barbara knew someone was on the other side.

Perpendicular to the mirror was a sliding door, with a cheap-looking foldout chair next to it, but other than that, the room was barren.

There was blood on the light pink sweater she'd been wearing. Not a lot, but it was smudged along the shoulder, smeared on the back of her hands and the tiled floor. Lord only knew what she looked like.

Barbara took deep breaths, knowing she couldn't lose her cool. She had no idea where she was, or who she'd been attacked by, or what they wanted from her. By some miracle, she wasn't dead, which could only give her hope that whoever had taken her here wanted to reason with her. Over what, she couldn't be sure.

The chills from earlier in the day were back, and Barbara felt sweat beading along her hairline and on her upper lip, despite the cold in the room around her. The urge to cry came briefly but she pushed it aside. There were always risks associated with her line of work, but there was no amount of experience in the face of danger that could train out the basic instincts of fight or flight. And since she couldn't do either, she was starting to panic.

But before she was completely overcome, the door slid open. Barbara rose to her feet on wobbly knees that seemed uncharacteristically weak, the metal cuff scraping along the railing as she did her best to put on a front, lifting her chin and rolling back her shoulders.

A woman with auburn hair in a loose plait that snaked over her shoulder stood before her. In the few seconds before she spoke, Barbara took in every detail she could on the woman's face, her big brown eyes, slim nose, and full lips. She was beautiful. And Barbara was sure she wouldn't forget her face.

"Good," she said, the woman eyeing her with clear distaste. "You're awake."

A man entered the room behind her, equally as attractive, but a bit less assuming. He had a familiar face, though Barbara couldn't place it. And even if she wanted to, her mind was spinning too much to try.

"What do you want?" she asked them, trying to keep the fear from edging into her voice, raising her chin and standing up as straight as possible, her arm tucked behind her.

The woman scoffed, and folded her arms across her chest. "I think we're the ones who should be asking that question."

Barbara furrowed her brows, another chill racking her body. She coughed into the crook of her arm and shook her head. "You wouldn't have brought me here if you didn't want something, so what is it?"

The woman stepped forward, and Barbara realized they were about the same height, she might have even been taller if she wasn't still hunched over, handcuffed. The woman's steely eyes scanned her, brow furrowing. "What does an innocent person do running around empty streets with a gun?"

It seemed like a bad idea to give away her line of work right away, fearing it could get her into more trouble. Barbara shook her head again, finding it hard to stay upright, the wound that was somewhere on her head was throbbing.

Barbara didn't have to because the woman stalked forward. "You must have got separated from your friends, right? They aren't coming back for you. Everything is locked down now."

"I think you've gotten me confused with someone else. I don't know who you are," Barbara insisted.

The woman squared up with her, and Barbara knew she could probably take her if it weren't for her head injury and restraints. There was no way she could wedge herself any further into the corner to avoid a physical confrontation. Right now, she had to focus on diffusion.

"I'm not playing games," the woman snarled and took another step forward. "So you'd better fess up."

"North," the man behind her interjected.

It took a terse minute, but the woman, who Barbara now assumed was named North, backed away, but still stood glowering with a steely gaze.

"I want to help you figure this out, too," she began carefully. "But I can't give you answers if you don't tell me what it is you think I've done."

The man sighed, crossing his arms and glancing at the woman next to him. "Just a few hours ago, several androids were killed walking through the Riverton Warehouse District. We're not sure who it was, but we know more than one person was involved."

"So both of you are...androids?" Even through the haze of pain and weakness, Barbara began to piece things together.

"You've got to be fucking kidding-"

"North." The man held his hand up, and Barbara finally got a close-up look at his face, one green, one blue eye, the same shaped face she'd seen before, in the Stratford Tower, standing beside Connor during the newscast. It was so obvious, someone she should have recognized the second he walked in the door. But the last time she'd seem him, he had peeled back his artificial skin.

"Wait," Barbara found a burst of strength to sit up straighter. "You're Markus, right?"

He nodded, and she continued. "There may be some circumstantial evidence that makes you think I was involved in whatever happened to your people. But I'm a detective. I was investigating the scene of a homicide that happened last week."

"A detective? Really?" the woman asked, seemingly skeptical. "Then where's your badge?"

"In my car," Barbara said. She knew it had been a bad idea to leave it behind. But really, she only thought it would take a few minutes to look around.

Markus pondered her words, but North still seemed skeptical. She supposed it was valid. The area she'd been scouting had been all but abandoned by humans, and the pool of suspects was probably shallow.

"I know Connor," Barbara said suddenly. "At the DPD, he was my partner on the deviancy case. Whatever you think I've done, I haven't. I know you don't want to trust me, and I get it. But he can tell you, please, I was just doing my job-"

"Even better," North began. "So you're still responsible for our people being killed, just not today. Maybe this was meant to b-"

"North," Markus cut her off, and appeared to be thinking. "That's enough for now." He nodded his head towards the door and lingered for a moment before gliding towards the exit. Barbara was surprised she couldn't tell they were androids before.

"Can you at least get me out of these before you-" Barbara began, wrestling against her restraints, but the door slid closed rapidly. "Leave," she finished.

Dejected, Barbara slumped against the wall, sliding to the floor, head spinning and throbbing, eyes heavy. The increased thrum of her heartbeat had opened up the wound on her temple again, and she could feel blood tracking down the side of her face. She thought mentioning Connor would have been a good idea, but it only seemed to upset them more. She supposed it made sense, since the case she'd been working on went against everything their movement was trying to accomplish. As for Connor, they hadn't spoken since the last time they'd seen each other, so Barbara couldn't be certain he'd even care.

It could have been minutes or hours, but Barbara somehow managed to doze off, the exhaustion too much to fight, even with her throbbing head and arm twisted behind her back. She awoke to commotion on the other side of the door, which opened with a hiss.

Connor stepped inside, looking feral, eyes taking one determined sweep over the room before they landed on her small form in the corner.

"Barbara," he said, and closed the gap between them quickly. Barbara straightened, eyes adjusting to the light all over again. "Are you all right?" His hand cradled her chin as he swept back her hair to examine the side of her face.

"I'm okay," she said out of habit, without really knowing. He touched her like it was nothing, but it didn't stop her heart from beating faster, becoming suddenly self-conscious under his studied gaze. She certainly didn't feel okay, but there wasn't much she could do about it, and didn't want to irritate Connor any further.

Connor straightened. "Get her out of these handcuffs," she'd only heard him raise his voice one other time, on the rooftop when they'd arrested Rupert Travis.

"Connor-" North began, Markus next to her. They'd followed him in, but Barbara had hardly noticed.

"Why didn't you contact me sooner?" he asked the pair of androids behind him, his tone still sharp, and Barbara rose to her feet again, feeling even more wobbly.

"We didn't know who she was, and she was carrying a gun," North explained. "After the attacks earlier we couldn't take any-"

"She's not a threat to us," he said curtly.

"She said she worked with you on the deviant investigation. She wants us dead, how foolish can you be to trust a human like this?" North hissed at him, and Barbara blinked, watching the conversation play out. Even though she felt only halfway aware of her surroundings, she knew better than to involve herself in the situation.

"I was on the deviant investigation, too, and now I'm on the council with you," Connor rose to his feet and took a key from Markus' outstretched hand. "Am I not to be trusted?"

North scoffed, turning on her heel and leaving the room without answering. Connor didn't seem to care. Rigidly, he turned his attention back to Barbara and took her arm gently, looking over her shoulder, and the handcuff popped open. Her shoulder twinged as her arm finally swung forward, and she circled her wrist a few times. "Thank you," she murmured. Connor's eyes were on her but she avoided his gaze. She was embarrassed, anxious, and had no words for the current moment.

"What were you doing out there?" Connor asked.

Barbara cleared her throat. "Fowler put me back on homicides. A woman was killed outside of Belle Isle just a few weeks ago and I wanted to see the crime scene in person."

Connor blinked once, his LED cycling in a continuous gold circle, but didn't respond. Of course, she'd seen him act robotic before, but this was different. Any quip he could be holding back on the tip of his tongue couldn't have been worse than his silence.

Markus finally spoke after a terse moment. "The city is afraid of us retaliating, so they've set up a blockade. Until tensions die down, no one can leave Belle Isle. I'll have someone escort you to a room to stay in while we try to work this out."

Barbara nodded, and crossed her arms.

"Connor, I think it's best we gather the others for a meeting and try to figure out a plan."

Connor blinked again, his gaze turning from Barbara as he nodded in agreement and followed Markus out. Barbara felt another chill run down her spine, but it wasn't from the temperature of the room. Her instincts had been right, but she wasn't prepared for how much it hurt. But she couldn't deflect responsibility, she'd done this herself, and had to face the consequences alone.

Wow, so it only took me like 6 month to resolve that cliffhanger. Somehow feels like so much more time than that. Forgive me for the late updates, I've had a lot happen to me over the past few months, but I hope you all are doing well. Also I hope you all didn't forget about this story/DBH. I feel so disconnected from the fandom right now, but I'm hoping to get back to it.