Agape part II

Selina left Haven and her trashed room behind. That life she was leading there was a dream, but now she was back to reality and she reminded herself that she was good at reality, well, not good, but she had survived on her own until this point, and she would not give up now.

She bitterly remembered those nights when they whispered plans for the future under the covers, the life they would have together. He talked the most, she listened, rolled her eyes at his silly romantic boy ways. But how nice was to believe that there will be a future, that there was more than live one day each. So much bullshit. How could she let herself believe in all that crap?

'I guess I am young and stupid.'

She breathed in, held for a little, let it out. She haven't eaten yet. But that she was used to. That was good. Hunger. She knew hunger. She knew how to deal with it. It was simple; it was real, not like the stupid dreams, the unreachable yearnings that didn't belong to someone like her.

She just have to rob herself a dinner.

But Gotham was a very different city from before. If it was a rotting carcass before, rich enough to feed street rats like her all sort of vermin, now only the naked bones remained. And it wasn't like the rich people would come back anytime soon. What was left was the miserable and the poor.

She couldn't rob people that have nothing. Could she?

How could she know that morals were also a kind of STD? Tabitha never told her, but she wouldn't know that either.

Fucking rich asshole.

ooo

Her old squat was a stinky hole, there was cat pee and cat po e, but no cats, not anymore.

But she guessed she deserved that after abandoning her babies. At least there was running water again. Stomach howling, Selina cleaned. Stomach calling her dirty dirty names, Selina lay in her ruined cot, she had stripped the sheets and flipped over the mattress but it still stank like hell.

She needed clean beddings. Where the fuck would she get that?

ooo

The next day she was so hungry her stomach gave up hurting. She tried to stop thinking about what the other kids like her would say when they were trying to find something eatable in the dumpsters behind junk food restaurants, that if you didn't eat the walls of your stomach would stick together and fold and you would die.

Kids were like that, they liked to scare each other even when reality was scary enough.

By noon she had found a broken vending machine that somehow still have a single gummy bears package, and she was really impressed when she noticed that it wasn't expired. Maybe that would feed everyone post-apocalypse: children snacks with free nutritional value. That was a happy thought, see, she was thriving.

She knew that now the government was sending help there was probably a soup kitchen of sorts back in Haven, but she would rather boil her own leather jacket and eat it than stand the pity looks everyone would send her there.

ooo

Selina tried to contact the people from her old background network and to her surprise, she discovered that not much have changed there.

'I mean, No Man's Land? Pfff. We were already living in warlike conditions way before that. Not all of us found ourselves billionaire boyfriends and cop pals.'

She deserved that, but she still punched him for good measures. In that life no disrespect should be treated lightly.

There she found out that there was one place that haven't been completely cleaned out yet, the Drake Mansion. Well, must of it was scraped clean, but there was one vault that no one was able to get in. Selina smiled when she heard that. Finally.

ooo

Of course the dammed mansion had to next to the demolished Wayne one. She ignored the feeling of her heart sinking when she saw the pile of rubbles, turned her face away. That place, that life, it didn't matter anymore. She climbed the Drake Mansion tall iron fence with practiced ease, yes, that was what she was good at. That was her, not Selina Kyle the hero, Selina Kyle the thief. The Selina Kyle that cared for what was really important: herself.

The door was ajar and imposed no difficulty for her to get inside. The whole place was trashed and it was clear that someone was there before because it held nothing of value, nothing that could be traded for food or melted into ammo. That, Selina thought, was reality. That was what people really amounted to in the end. Surviving.

She walked through the bare corridors, in some of them even the wallpaper was ripped off, to make fire, she thought, smart.

'If I were a rich prick where would I hide a secret vault?' she whispered to herself. Basement? Attic? A secret passed in the library? Behind a grandfather clock?

Well, there was no grandfather clock, and all the books were gone from the shelves so she couldn't just pick one and the secret passage would open like in a Scooby Doo episode. She wished she had pressed for more information. Geez, her head was pounding, her body had really get used to that eating everyday thing. There was nothing in the basement, just trash and what looked like it was one abandoned squat. How could someone have chosen to be in that creepyass place? And it was freezing!

She was getting really annoyed and was ready to climb to the attic when she noticed something moving with the corner of her eye. Selina rested her hand on her bullwhip slowly and walked towards it. It moved again. With luck was just a rat. It moved once more and let out a squeal, a very human one. Not a rat then.

She rolled her eyes, nothing that made that sound could possibly be dangerous.

'Come on out!'

Nothing.

'If you don't then I will have to go there and I don't think you will like it.'

The shadow rustled a bit, and them it tried to make a run to the stairs.

Selina cracked her whip blocking their way.

It was a girl. Around her same age. She was wearing a long dirty wool skirt a pile of coats that with the addition of the enormous backpack she had on made her look very small despite her actual size, she was taller than Selina, her hair was brown and oily. She had her back to Selina.

'Turn around! Who are you?'

She turned surprised.

'Selina?'

Selina frowned.

'Do I know you?'

'It's me, Paul! Paul Milligan. Well, it's Nikki now.'

Selina blinked confused and then the girl walked closer, Selina's hand held the bullwhip harder, but she didn't strike again. The thin light bean coming from upstairs washed the stranger's face.

'Oh my god! It's you!' She couldn't help the smile. 'What the fuck you're doing here? Didn't they find you a good family last time? And Nikki? What is that? A stripper name?'

Her old friend laughed lightly.

'It's for Nichole, my parents chose it. The new ones.'

'What happened?'

'They died. The building they worked was one of those that blew up.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Yeah, me too. But hey, you're looking good.'

'Can't say the same.'

Nikki laughed again, thing time more whole-heartily.

'I missed you, Cat.'

'Sheesh. So…' She pointed to the cot on the corner of the room. 'You're squatting here?'

'No, nooo. I'm here to do the same as you, I guess. The vault?'

Selina sighed, great. She was happy to see Nikki and all but that was the last thing she needed right now, competition.

'Look, Nikki…'

'No, listen, Selina. I know you work alone, but hear me out, I don't think this is a work for just one person.'

'And why is that?'

Nikki looked up.

'I've been studying this place for a while… I you need to go up there to open the vault down here. It has this very complicated computer system, but I think I can hack it.'

'But there is no power here, how is this computer system even on?'

'I think they have a generator.'

'Shit.'

Selina was good at a lot of things, but she had no idea of how to deal with that nerd stuff.

'Hey, we can collab. For the old times?'

Selina met Nikki on Gotham's Children Center where Selina was thrown time after time when she was rejected by some foster family or simple picked up from the streets when she fled. Nikki, then Paul, was this sad little nerd that Selina took a like into because she helped her to learn to read in exchange for protection from the other kids that beat her up regularly and called her slurs. When Selina was ten, Nikki, then eight, left the GCC to live with this nice suburban family and Selina heard that she was adopted later. She was happy for her friend at the time, but also jealous, she wasn't the only one. She after hearing some boys saying really disgusting things about her friend she decided to discount her frustration by beating the shit out of them and fleeing GCC again before getting a punishment. They didn't try to bring her back after that.

Nikki was still waiting an answer with those big brown eyes of her.

Selina rolled her eyes and sighed.

'Okay, fine. What do I have to do?'

ooo

Turns out that was a lot of money in that vault. A lot.

'What are going to do with your share?' Asked Nikki, she still looked dumpy but now her cheeks were a healthy red and she had a gleam of happiness in her eyes.

'I'm leaving Gotham.'

'What?'

'Why? Is it so hard to believe that I want nothing to do with this shitty place?'

'No, it's just… I head about you…and Bruce Wayne.'

Selina winced at the sharp pain hearing his name brought.

'That is over. He is gone.'

'He died?!'

Despite herself Selina almost laughed. She missed Nikki, she had a childlike way to say things, and she was always jumping to extreme conclusions, it was endearing.

'No, you moron. He left.'

'Oh… I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. I don't care. I don't care about him.'

Nikki said nothing.

'What about you? What are you going to do with yours?' Asked Selina.

'Where will you go?'

'Why?'

'Do you think you could use some company?'

So this was the first part. I'm really glad for the views, kudos, bookmark and comment. You guys are great!

Next chapter might be a bit raunchy XDD Lots of flashbacks of Selina and Bruce in Heaven.