[Save]

I take a second to appreciate being rid of all of those drugs that were keeping me down last time. I take a breath in and let it out. I had hopes and dreams about how this will go that I am going to refer to as a plan.

First I walk towards the memorial picture and put it into a storage seal. I look around for clues but I didn't want to spend too much time here in case Alfred gets here sooner than expected. I could come back when Alfred was gone.

I decide to walk out of the backdoor so I slam it open ready to throw a kunai for the first part of my plan.

"Hey, I am taking a break, what's the big deal?" Said a man wearing an apron who was in the middle of taking a smoke while listening to music on his earphones.

My thought processes halted. My plans shattered. Because of fucking course.

I smiled as I looked at him. He also turned to look at me, froze and spoke "A meta?" and he started running. He was the guy that had burned down the cafe, originally. I could tell from how skinny he was.

"I didn't do anything. I don't know who owns the fucking—"

I don't let him get too far away.

"Ten seconds, tell me who pays you and you get to live." I said in my most intimidating voice, which wasn't very intimidating. I stood on top of the cafe and was doing that thing I've seen Vigilanties do on TV, with him hanging from a ledge with only my hands on his shirt keeping him from falling and all that.

"If I don't get an answer in ten seconds then—" I slightly loosen my grip "You know what will happen."

His only way to not fall down was to tell me what I wanted. I was ready to do it, I wanted to believe I was. So I told myself that this will probably be an abandoned run and started counting.

"Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five—"

He was visibly starting to lose his cool as my grip got looser and loser while the pace of my counting did not change.

"Four, Three—'

I could see that he was going to open his mouth, and just as he did it, just as he was about to give me something, or even just spit in my face, something smacked my head. I turned around.

"Whatever your name is, you Ninja girl, drop the hostage." I look back to see a cape dressed like a Bat. This one a girl and a redhead. And unlike the blue/grey/black aesthetic of Batman, she was dressed in yellow/blue/black. It was a good costume.

"What are you? A Batman fangirl?"

"Haha, funny. The joke went stale after the first time I heard it."

But I legitimately don't. Alfred never mentioned a female bat—person.

"I actually don't know. Are you a Robin?" I asked.

"Wait, you really don't?" She said. Not confused or dejected, but calculating.

"Are you batwoman? No, Batgirl. Aha, Batgirl, see I know you."

"Huh, thanks." She thanked me. Though she was still bound up and ready to spring.

"Umm… can I go?" Asked the guy I was still holding. Thank god he was skinny or I would not be able to do this.

"No," I said.

"Yes." said Batgirl.

So we were at an impasse. We had to fight. Fight to see who will get their way. She was obviously somehow related to Batman, so I had reasons to take my anger and frustration out on her.

However, I did not want to do it. I didn't want to fight. I might have if it was someone else. But currently, I was too mentally exhausted to fight someone and would take any excuse to not do it.

"How about we don't fight?" I said testing the waters simultaneously as I noticed something interesting about her stance. She was getting herself ready to dodge. Not block or attack or throw something at me, dodge.

"Does that mean you are letting him go?" Asked her, She wasn't thrown off by my question. She still had her guard up.

"I see. How long did you have this place under observation?" She tensed even further. Telling me—something. Honestly, it was hard to read her, I couldn't tell if her reactions were genuine or not.

She shakes her forehead. She was obviously catching up that I was trying to keep her off balance.

"Can I trust that you are not going to fight? That you were actually trying to de-escalate?" She asked me. She sounded earnest so I nodded my head.

"Let the guy go and then we will talk." She said.

I had to sigh. Talking things out was hard.

"I need him to answer my questions," I told her.

"Questions like?"

"Like what's the deal with him and the cafe?"

I had almost forgotten about the guy. It was a small shock when he gathered himself and talked. "I—I own the cafe. Bought it after the last owner died. I swear it w—was an accident."

What was an accident? Him buying it my alternate family's death?

Then I hear a sigh coming from Batgirl. "Amar. Why are you lying? We know who owns the cafe. It's not you. Why not just come out and say it?"

He visibly switches tracks. "You are right, I don't own the cafe. Bu—but I don't know who does."

"Then who does?" I shout at the guy. I wasn't very good at information gathering.

"I can tell you that." Said the girl.

"So you know what I want? Just tell me that and I leave." I told her.

"There is nothing he knows that I don't. Amar Goiaz, Age 30. He works for the Penguin and knows that he does."

"So it's the Penguin?" I turned to the guy. "Who or what is the Penguin?"

She made a shushing motion as she turned to me.

"Just think of him as a crime boss."

"However, before we jump into that, Amar's story is far from over, and I want you to hear it."

Is this her attempt at making sure that I don't endanger him?

"He always admired and wanted to be a chef. Three years ago he graduated from Gotham-Uni with a Master's in Culinary arts and with an internship to work at one of Gotham's most upscale restaurants. He had his whole life ahead of him. " She said as he approached the nervous man.

"How do you know all this?" He asked.

"Bats always know, Amar. We always do. Now I will knock you out for half an hour. Once you wake up you are to pretend this never happened. Got it?" Asked the girl. He nodded his head violently. She did a chopping motion to his shoulders and he went down, clearly unconscious. just like that.

I thought that only worked in the movies. But hey, I just saw it happening, what do I know? I also thought she was trying to save the guy, but this does save time.

"Then what happened?" I asked.

"Good question." She said. "When the Penguin wanted someone good to take care of this cafe, for whatever reason, Amar was chosen. And when a crime boss wants someone in this city to work for them, a very small number of people can say no. While Penguin paid him more than what he would have made in any restaurant in Gotham to take care of this small place, Amar was not gaining any satisfaction from it. He truly loved cooking, he had a passion for it. He guessed if this was a money laundering scheme. But he never had the courage to ask or even look into it. Depressed and unsatisfied he started losing weight. But he still had to work, because if not—you get the picture."

I was too engrossed in his story so I had to ask.

"Couldn't he have just sold something else? If he liked cooking so much?"

"That's the strange part. The Penguin wants this cafe to function, just like it did when the last owner was still alive. He visits here, sometimes. He inspects the cookies, drinks the tea and makes sure that nothing is different."

"Why do you think he wants everything to be the same?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asks in return.

"It's related to money laundering, somehow." I made my guess.

She didn't confirm or deny it.

I frowned, seeing that she continued.

"Now, banking on any good faith I have accumulated from all of that, why do you wanna know?"

So that's how she wanted to play it.

"I want to know what happened to my family," I replied. My reply made her tense up again, I could see why.

I knew I shouldn't trust any 'Bats'. I learned that last time. I knew she was here because she knew something important was going to happen today.

She knew all this information, which meant Alfred potentially did too. Which is why I had to know what she would say.

"Did Alfred know any of this?" I asked her.

A slight momentary lapse in concentration.

"Alfred? Who are you talking about?" She said, Incredibly convincingly. I wasn't being sarcastic, If I didn't know… then I would have believed her. Whatever her powers were it wasn't just a deductive thinker power.

"Just answer the question. Tell me the truth or lie. I don't consider myself good enough to tell. But just give me a reason for why he is now walking towards the cafe?" I pointed at the butler that I had noticed. He hadn't seen me or Batgirl.

She looked surprised. It was either her acting or Alfred really didn't know—

"I would like to know as well. Did he know that you were playing lookout? Were you going to send him in to make contact with me?"

"No! I would never put Alfred at risk like that. Not against someone who can travel between dimensions." She sounded aghast at the idea. At least she admitted that she knew him.

"And you are?" I asked tilting my head.

It was the shock of seeing Alfred there that breaks down all her defences. She talks to me freely.

"It was an experimental algorithm. I didn't think it would actually work and even if it did, the barrier would have only been large enough for a few Photons to pass through. What it implies about the bleed is fascinating. To think that an algorithm I based off of—" She catches herself. She coughs and turns to me.

"Are you a villain? Do you mean to cause harm to anybody?" She asks me.

And since I had accepted this timeline was going to be scrapped, And I wanted to talk to someone, I removed my mask and sat down on the Ledge. She surprisingly follows though she doesn't remove her mask.

"What would you do if you learn that your mother who died way too soon, existed in another universe?" She looked like she had something to add but she let me continue.

"Now imagine going to that universe and learning that she was dead there too. Then you learn that your dad is dead too. Your entire family is dead. All of this happens in less than 10 minutes. Then, then you learn that they didn't simply die in an accident. You learn that there was something more, something sinister. Wouldn't you want to know the truth?"

"How did you learn all of that? Did you know before you left? How do you know about Alfred? Do you know—"

"Bruce? Dick? Jason? Julia? I know."

"So all that about not knowing me?"

"Oh! I don't know you."

"So you are from a universe where Bruce, Dick, Jason and even Julia exist but I don't?"

"I have no idea who you are."

"I am so very confused." She said with a sigh.

Welcome to me since I got this power. I thought to myself.

"Is this your way of repaying the goodwill? Telling me all of this?"

"Yeah, sure whatever makes sense to you, Batgirl. So do you know who killed my family?"

She becomes wary again. I couldn't fault her, but it was getting annoying. I can't believe my social skills had degenerated to a point where all I could do was hit people with verbal sledgehammers even when I was explicitly trying to form a non-hostile relationship.

"You never answered what you would do with that information?"

"I just want to know why they died. I was furious when I first learned that they were dead but now? With hindsight? If there are infinite universes, then what does it matter that they died here." I said, half-it-making up and half-verbalizing everything I realized in that cell.

"I get it." She said.

"You do?" I had to ask. What did she get?

"We get occasional dimensional travellers and stories of other dimensions. I think about it sometimes. If I could find a place where it was all better. I wonder if I could be happy in a place like that."

I wanted to believe her but she was part of Bruces's co-hoard. So I couldn't fully believe that she was saying the truth.

"I am happy we didn't fight. But I don't think we have any more time."

Batgirl who had started to relax around me jolts up.

"What? What do you mean? You keep on giving me mental whiplashes when all I want to do is trust you, I think you do too... Why not stop with the games and just talk? I don't want to consider every new person I run into a potential danger like Bruce. You can't—"

"No, not me. Soon the Joker's mind-controlled heroes will start fighting Batman. I don't know if he can fight them off himself."

I was expecting an exclamation of disbelief but what I got was a question.

"Who?" She asked.

"Some lady called Diana, A blonde guy called Arthur, 'The Flash' and 'Superman'."

"How do you not?—what is it? a different timestream— No I don't have the time for this. I have to let Bruce know."

She picks up her phone, which looked like a bat. Now that's some dedication to marketing, I should take notes. And calls Bruce. He doesn't pick up.

"Every time. What's the point of having a phone if I can't reach anyone when I need to reach them." She starts pacing. Complaining under her breath about something.

"Are you from the future or not? I have to know." She said.

"Kinda." I shrug.

She looked incredibly frustrated. I could see how the conversation with me was frustrating for her. Did I decide to talk and not fight because I subconsciously knew that talking to me would be more painful than fighting? Probably not because I wasn't getting any joy out of this.

"So what happened in this future, did Bruce survive? Are the Justice League okay?"

"Bruce survived but I don't know what happened to the rest I only saw up to their capture. Oh, there's also this teensy tiny bit of detail that I had to help Bruce out for him to survive. Don't mean to brag but I did take out the Flash and Superman." I said, bragging. I couldn't help it. Speaking about your accomplishments felt good.

"So just do it, take the Justice League down. Go do your thing." She said crossing her arms. I don't know what mental image of me she had by this point. But it must be confusing.

I could only shrug at that. She seemed genuine. It had sounded by the end of our conversation like she wanted to not fight and trust me. But I had already come to the conclusion that I could not take any of the 'Bats' at face value. I admitted that I can't tell their lies, truths and partial lies apart. And I was still pissed at the assholes who drugged me and locked me up, no matter how righteous they felt about what they did

"No," I told her. "From what I saw, I felt like He was perfectly capable of defending himself."

"Is this something you 'saw' or are you assuming?"

Right as she said that the first sounds of their clash started ringing. Thunderclaps and the sounds of evacuating people.

"Do you know who that is?" She asked me, even more worried.

"It's Batman in his suit versus Diana," I said.

"Fuck. How about this, what if I help you find the Penguin if you help Bruce out now?"

That sounded good. I nod.

"Sounds good. Would you wear a curse tag making sure that you will keep the promise?"

I surprised myself with the question. I didn't have any malice towards her then why?

"A curse—" A large boom stops her then she continues "tag?"

"A magical artefact I use, it acts as a contract. We agree on something and each of us wears one. If either of us falls short. Then boom—-" I made an explosion with my hands.

"Boom, what?" She asked over another actual explosion.

"I don't really know I have never seen it happen," I said.

She had to think about that for a second.

"So, I have to wear this dangerous artefact, if not then Bruce has to fight half of JL all by himself. And we don't know if he will win without it?"

"That's the gist of it, I will also wear a tag so that you know I am keeping up my portion of the bargain. And about the fight, I said what I saw happening in my simulations." I said.

"You keep changing how your future— nevermind, I can tell you are messing with me, I don't have the time for it." She shook her head. Took a deep breath, and let it out. "You really won't do it without me using that mark?" She asked. I had to shake my head. She let out a resigned sigh "I will do it, I will put on the dangerous artefact if it means that Bruce gets a higher chance to get out alive of this fiasco." I had no doubt, someone, probably penny was listening in on it. But hey, I really wanted the help.

So I took out two curse tags, gave her one and kept one.

"Touch it to your chest, it will stick. We don't have to vocalize our agreement it will take care of all of that itself." It worked via the feeling of betrayal, I wasn't going to tell her that.

She touched it to her chest and it became part of her bat costume, It did for me as well.

"Ok let's go. Bruce can take care of her by himself but he will need some help defeating the other two."

Before we moved I made sure to tie up the Guy. I empathized with him but didn't want him to burn down the cafe again. When Batgirl asked I told her it was because he caused issues in future and that she or I can let him down after tonight.

So I went out to fight the Heroes again.

AN: Don't worry I won't repeat the same fights again.