Helena felt like she had lost everything; that assassin had killed not only
her mother, but he had killed her life, her illusions. Hours after she
escaped of Monique's custody, she was seated in the park with a small
backpack, distracted as she thought about what to do, where to go, when the
police caught her; she didn't offer much resistance; she was so stunned.
They had taken her to the DYFS; the first days she had been so stunned that she was almost a zombie, without talk or eat, closed in her 'cell' as she called her room in the DYFS, a room that she shared with four other girls, while they searched for a Foster Home for her. The other girls were around her age, 13, 15, 17, but were more brave than her and she wasn't in the mood to protest or say something.
In the first moments she felt hopeless. The nightmares that would follow her over the next years were starting to appear in her dreams; she was mocked by the girls when they saw her crying or waking up at night, scared. She began to hide her feelings to avoid being mad fun of.
* * *
Barbara was in the darkness of her room, the lights off, awake and lost in her inner thoughts and sadness. She was trapped in a wheel chair, nothing would ever be the same. She felt a chill on her back, the window was open, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered to her now.
"What do you want?" she asked "To try to convince me again that everything is fine?"
"No, I came here to see you and." The impressive silhouette of Batman stood next to the window. "You were a great partner."
"I was, now I'm. nothing."
"Barbara, I agreed to be your mentor because you are an extraordinary woman, you possess an incredible photographic memory, I don't have it!, a brown belt in judo, a keen analytical researcher's mind, and a great background in gymnastics, dance, and other athletics."
"That was Batgirl, Batgirl is dead now. as am I." Barbara felt tears ruining down her face.
"I'm sorry." Bruce took off his mask and kneeled in front of her.
"Don't be sorry for me, I have enough of that myself."
"I'm alive. unfortunately; I lost everything I have. I lost you, I lost Selina. I came here to say goodbye. I've hurt the people that I most love. I'm sorry for that. I left instructions, everything you need, you will have. Alfred is at your disposal. You are alive, you still have a future. I know that you only go out to your physical and emotional therapy sessions, you are hiding. Don't do that."
"You can't ask me to feel alive, I can't" she sobbed "I can't."
Bruce hugged her, they cried in silence. Bruce really loved her, and he was depressed, he also thought this was unfair for her, she was a great woman. Barbara felt comfort in her mentor's arms, she missed her lost life. They cried until Barbara fell asleep. He stood up and kissed her forehead, he covered his face with his mask and walked toward the window. He turned to see her for last time.
"I love you Barbara, I'm sorry." Batman jumped through the window and disappeared in the night.
* * *
One day she was looking out the window and heard a noise behind her, one of the girls had taken one her blouses from her drawer. She didn't like that.
"Hey, leave that there."
"Later." the girl said.
"I said leave that there!" Helena stood up.
The girl didn't listen and went to the door. Helena jumped and landed in front of her, surprising the girl; she grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall with all of her strength.
"I said leave that there!" Helena growled at her with her feral eyes; the girl was petrified and screamed. "Never, listen to me. never touch my things again! Got it?"
"Let me go, freak!!!" the girl cried.
Helena was blinded for the rage and pressed her neck. "I'm not a freak!"
"Freak, freak freak!!!!" the girl shouted, afraid. "You are a freak!! Save me from the freak!!"
Helena threw her against the bed and fell over her. They began to fight. The noise attracted the attention of the DYFS personnel and they ran into the room.
"Helena!" the principal manager shouted but the brunette didn't listen to anyone. She just wanted to shut up the annoying kid. It took the help of three people to get her off of the girl. The personnel were surprised by her strength. She was punished and locked in a room alone. With each passing day, Helena felt more and more mad and rebellious against the system that she considered unfair.
All the other girls after that gave her the nickname of "freaky", and the girl wanted her revenge. Helena was at the DYFS, but she had her normal classes at the High School. She became unfriendly and everyday she talked less. Her sadness began to turn to anger.
* * *
In the dark room, with the lights off, Barbara was resting on her side, her mind and her thoughts were lost, she hated life, she was fighting to help others; her life had been in danger many times to save people, this was unfair. Her father had try to help her, but she refused to see or talk with anyone. She felt so depressed, so useless.
Gordon had given all his effort to try to help her to keep going, but Barbara was closed in her own suffering; she didn't listen; she had closed herself off to everything and everybody.
* * *
Helena was working alone on her homework in a table in the living room of the house where she lived. One of the girls sat in front of her with her notebooks and began to do her homework. Helena didn't care who it was and continued working. After a few minutes she finished and put her things inside her school bag. She raised her head and at that moment her look fixed on the girl; anger grew inside her. She just stepped up on the table and took the girl by the neck. The girl screamed. She took her necklace and pulling it, breaking the lock.
"I warned you! Never touch my things and especially not my mother's things!!" Helena shouted and pushed her. The girl fell to the floor. Helena took the necklace and put it in her pocket. She something hit her in the back; three girls were over her but she beat them and they ran crying in under one minute.
She picked her school bag up off the floor and walked to her room ,furiously. Suddenly she felt some one take her arm. She turned and without thinking hit the person that had greabbed her. She later discovered was the Principal of the Center. A few minutes later she was in his office with the other girls.
"So Helena?"
"She took my mother's necklace."
"The girls told me that is Susane's." the Principal was seated behind his desk with the necklace between his hands, with a big bruise under his eye.
"Susane took it from my suitcase!" Helena shouted.
"No," Susane said crying "It is mine, my friends are my witnesses, I always had it." The other girls nodded.
"That is not true!" the counselor behind her pulled her back into the chair.
"I don't want you to give me anymore trouble," the Principal said extending his hand to give the necklace to Susane who smirked at her.
Helena's eyes changed and she glared at her. "I'm warning you, don't touch it!" she said in a firm voice. Susane pulled her hand back, scared.
"It's yours Susane, take it." The Principal said. The girls pushed her to take it. "I'll protect you, don't worry about her."
Susane hesitated and as soon as she took the necklace, Helena jumped over her like a rabid animal and snatched it. The counselor tried to stop her but it was impossible. A big brawl started in the director's office.
She was punished for three days locked in a room, but she recovered the necklace. In certain way she felt a relief being alone; almost a month had passed after that terrible night, and the solitude gave her comfort.
Everybody thought she was a freak, and she really was one. Her mother and her had talked a lot about her meta-abilities, that she needed to keep them secret. Being a meta was dangerous, her mother was one and maybe because of that she had been murdered, and maybe she would be murdered too. And that didn't matter to her, she was angry, angry at the law, their custodies, at everything and everybody.
* * *
Barbara sat in the wheel chair in the darkness of her room. She wheeled to the window and opened the window curtain and looked outside thinking about her life. She was tired of being afraid and feeling useless. She had been a hero for so long, she loved the sensation of freedom that she got from patrolling at nights.
She opened the window and closed her eyes, she smelled the fresh air, much time had passed since she had breathed the unmistakable street smell. She smiled remembering her days as Batgirl. Suddenly she felt hope for her future.
* * *
Helena discovered how easily she could make the couselors and Principal angry. She began to disobey and not follow rules. She enjoyed the anger making everyone angry when she started trouble, it was her little revenge. She turned uncontrollable and was moved to the Detention Center, after a few days.
"Where are we going?" Helena asked looking trough the car's window to the policeman that drove in the front seat.
The police didn't answer her and she just put her nose against the window. Sure she was being moved to another DYFS center; she smiled to herself, after the last beating that she had given to those girls; the Principal sure didn't want to see her near the girls.
Suddenly she froze, she saw the entrance of the Youth Detention Center. "Hey stop!" she shouted hitting the glass that separated her from the driver. "Stop! Why did you bring me here? I'm not a criminal! Hey!" She began to try to open the door and kicked it unsuccessfully. She felt like a caged cat. The patrol car entered the building. As soon as the policeman opened the door she tried to run away but other policemen at the entrance helped their partner.
"Leave me alone!" she yelled.
"Easy girl!" one of the policemen shouted. She hit one of them and kicked the other one, she tried to run but a policeman grabbed her ankle and she fell to the floor. She was overwhelmed and they had to cuff her hands to manage her.
Helena was confined to a security room; she was extremely frustrated and angry; she had been punished just for being a 16 year old orphan. Her mother never would let anyone touch her, no one cared about her. She was alone and panicky, and she didn't have anything to loose. The nightmares continued following her, like a curse.
She was pissed, and began to look for ways to escape the place kept her trapped like an animal, and she did it.
* * * Barbara had served one term as a Representative in Congress and then returned to Gotham City to spend an increasing amount of time as her alternate identity, tackling cases of increasing difficulty and foes of greater menace. Cormorant, an enemy, in the process of kidnapping a little girl, had shot and seemingly killed her as Batgirl, but she overcame even that adversity to nail her prey. That incident had heightened her feelings of inadequacy and lack of effectiveness. But she never let it happen again, and now she was crippled. She couldn't change that, it was her reality. And she had just two choices, keep going or stay in the darkness feeling pity for herself. And it wasn't her style to be defeated, she took conscience again of her strong nature and her ideals. * * *
Helena walked outside breathing her freedom; she had escape of her "jail". She couldn't go to Gibson or any of her friends, that was the first place the police would look for her.
She felt terrible, she was a fugitive, and she wasn't guilty of anything, she was innocent, she was a victim, and the police chased her like a criminal. She wondered if they searched for her mother's assassin as vehemently as they had been looking for her. She didn't have a place to sleep, to rest; she had nowhere to go.
* * *
Barbara had talked with Bruce about her idea to go back to a normal life before he disappeared, he had sent her to train with the martial arts master, Richard Dragon in escrima, the Phillipine art of stick fighting. She had starting to learn the discipline and that had helped her to hone her body and give her confidence anew.
Bruce had just left everything. But she couldn't judge him, she realized that in some ways he was doing the same that she had been doing: run away from reality. But she couldn't continue hiding herself, she needed to face her own fears.
She started searching for Helena, as well, she had forgotten her in the middle of her own pain.
* * *
Helena had broken her own record, three days outside the Detention Center without being caught. Her stomach rumbled, the last time she had eaten was almost 24 hours ago. She looked at the fruit in the market and then glanced around, no one was watching her. She took a bunch of bananas and ran down the streets. She entered an alley and jumped to the rooftop of a high building. Up there, she hid behind a water tank and began to eat the bananas. It didn't matter how many times Helena escaped; the police always caught her again. And this time was no exception.
They had taken her to the DYFS; the first days she had been so stunned that she was almost a zombie, without talk or eat, closed in her 'cell' as she called her room in the DYFS, a room that she shared with four other girls, while they searched for a Foster Home for her. The other girls were around her age, 13, 15, 17, but were more brave than her and she wasn't in the mood to protest or say something.
In the first moments she felt hopeless. The nightmares that would follow her over the next years were starting to appear in her dreams; she was mocked by the girls when they saw her crying or waking up at night, scared. She began to hide her feelings to avoid being mad fun of.
* * *
Barbara was in the darkness of her room, the lights off, awake and lost in her inner thoughts and sadness. She was trapped in a wheel chair, nothing would ever be the same. She felt a chill on her back, the window was open, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered to her now.
"What do you want?" she asked "To try to convince me again that everything is fine?"
"No, I came here to see you and." The impressive silhouette of Batman stood next to the window. "You were a great partner."
"I was, now I'm. nothing."
"Barbara, I agreed to be your mentor because you are an extraordinary woman, you possess an incredible photographic memory, I don't have it!, a brown belt in judo, a keen analytical researcher's mind, and a great background in gymnastics, dance, and other athletics."
"That was Batgirl, Batgirl is dead now. as am I." Barbara felt tears ruining down her face.
"I'm sorry." Bruce took off his mask and kneeled in front of her.
"Don't be sorry for me, I have enough of that myself."
"I'm alive. unfortunately; I lost everything I have. I lost you, I lost Selina. I came here to say goodbye. I've hurt the people that I most love. I'm sorry for that. I left instructions, everything you need, you will have. Alfred is at your disposal. You are alive, you still have a future. I know that you only go out to your physical and emotional therapy sessions, you are hiding. Don't do that."
"You can't ask me to feel alive, I can't" she sobbed "I can't."
Bruce hugged her, they cried in silence. Bruce really loved her, and he was depressed, he also thought this was unfair for her, she was a great woman. Barbara felt comfort in her mentor's arms, she missed her lost life. They cried until Barbara fell asleep. He stood up and kissed her forehead, he covered his face with his mask and walked toward the window. He turned to see her for last time.
"I love you Barbara, I'm sorry." Batman jumped through the window and disappeared in the night.
* * *
One day she was looking out the window and heard a noise behind her, one of the girls had taken one her blouses from her drawer. She didn't like that.
"Hey, leave that there."
"Later." the girl said.
"I said leave that there!" Helena stood up.
The girl didn't listen and went to the door. Helena jumped and landed in front of her, surprising the girl; she grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall with all of her strength.
"I said leave that there!" Helena growled at her with her feral eyes; the girl was petrified and screamed. "Never, listen to me. never touch my things again! Got it?"
"Let me go, freak!!!" the girl cried.
Helena was blinded for the rage and pressed her neck. "I'm not a freak!"
"Freak, freak freak!!!!" the girl shouted, afraid. "You are a freak!! Save me from the freak!!"
Helena threw her against the bed and fell over her. They began to fight. The noise attracted the attention of the DYFS personnel and they ran into the room.
"Helena!" the principal manager shouted but the brunette didn't listen to anyone. She just wanted to shut up the annoying kid. It took the help of three people to get her off of the girl. The personnel were surprised by her strength. She was punished and locked in a room alone. With each passing day, Helena felt more and more mad and rebellious against the system that she considered unfair.
All the other girls after that gave her the nickname of "freaky", and the girl wanted her revenge. Helena was at the DYFS, but she had her normal classes at the High School. She became unfriendly and everyday she talked less. Her sadness began to turn to anger.
* * *
In the dark room, with the lights off, Barbara was resting on her side, her mind and her thoughts were lost, she hated life, she was fighting to help others; her life had been in danger many times to save people, this was unfair. Her father had try to help her, but she refused to see or talk with anyone. She felt so depressed, so useless.
Gordon had given all his effort to try to help her to keep going, but Barbara was closed in her own suffering; she didn't listen; she had closed herself off to everything and everybody.
* * *
Helena was working alone on her homework in a table in the living room of the house where she lived. One of the girls sat in front of her with her notebooks and began to do her homework. Helena didn't care who it was and continued working. After a few minutes she finished and put her things inside her school bag. She raised her head and at that moment her look fixed on the girl; anger grew inside her. She just stepped up on the table and took the girl by the neck. The girl screamed. She took her necklace and pulling it, breaking the lock.
"I warned you! Never touch my things and especially not my mother's things!!" Helena shouted and pushed her. The girl fell to the floor. Helena took the necklace and put it in her pocket. She something hit her in the back; three girls were over her but she beat them and they ran crying in under one minute.
She picked her school bag up off the floor and walked to her room ,furiously. Suddenly she felt some one take her arm. She turned and without thinking hit the person that had greabbed her. She later discovered was the Principal of the Center. A few minutes later she was in his office with the other girls.
"So Helena?"
"She took my mother's necklace."
"The girls told me that is Susane's." the Principal was seated behind his desk with the necklace between his hands, with a big bruise under his eye.
"Susane took it from my suitcase!" Helena shouted.
"No," Susane said crying "It is mine, my friends are my witnesses, I always had it." The other girls nodded.
"That is not true!" the counselor behind her pulled her back into the chair.
"I don't want you to give me anymore trouble," the Principal said extending his hand to give the necklace to Susane who smirked at her.
Helena's eyes changed and she glared at her. "I'm warning you, don't touch it!" she said in a firm voice. Susane pulled her hand back, scared.
"It's yours Susane, take it." The Principal said. The girls pushed her to take it. "I'll protect you, don't worry about her."
Susane hesitated and as soon as she took the necklace, Helena jumped over her like a rabid animal and snatched it. The counselor tried to stop her but it was impossible. A big brawl started in the director's office.
She was punished for three days locked in a room, but she recovered the necklace. In certain way she felt a relief being alone; almost a month had passed after that terrible night, and the solitude gave her comfort.
Everybody thought she was a freak, and she really was one. Her mother and her had talked a lot about her meta-abilities, that she needed to keep them secret. Being a meta was dangerous, her mother was one and maybe because of that she had been murdered, and maybe she would be murdered too. And that didn't matter to her, she was angry, angry at the law, their custodies, at everything and everybody.
* * *
Barbara sat in the wheel chair in the darkness of her room. She wheeled to the window and opened the window curtain and looked outside thinking about her life. She was tired of being afraid and feeling useless. She had been a hero for so long, she loved the sensation of freedom that she got from patrolling at nights.
She opened the window and closed her eyes, she smelled the fresh air, much time had passed since she had breathed the unmistakable street smell. She smiled remembering her days as Batgirl. Suddenly she felt hope for her future.
* * *
Helena discovered how easily she could make the couselors and Principal angry. She began to disobey and not follow rules. She enjoyed the anger making everyone angry when she started trouble, it was her little revenge. She turned uncontrollable and was moved to the Detention Center, after a few days.
"Where are we going?" Helena asked looking trough the car's window to the policeman that drove in the front seat.
The police didn't answer her and she just put her nose against the window. Sure she was being moved to another DYFS center; she smiled to herself, after the last beating that she had given to those girls; the Principal sure didn't want to see her near the girls.
Suddenly she froze, she saw the entrance of the Youth Detention Center. "Hey stop!" she shouted hitting the glass that separated her from the driver. "Stop! Why did you bring me here? I'm not a criminal! Hey!" She began to try to open the door and kicked it unsuccessfully. She felt like a caged cat. The patrol car entered the building. As soon as the policeman opened the door she tried to run away but other policemen at the entrance helped their partner.
"Leave me alone!" she yelled.
"Easy girl!" one of the policemen shouted. She hit one of them and kicked the other one, she tried to run but a policeman grabbed her ankle and she fell to the floor. She was overwhelmed and they had to cuff her hands to manage her.
Helena was confined to a security room; she was extremely frustrated and angry; she had been punished just for being a 16 year old orphan. Her mother never would let anyone touch her, no one cared about her. She was alone and panicky, and she didn't have anything to loose. The nightmares continued following her, like a curse.
She was pissed, and began to look for ways to escape the place kept her trapped like an animal, and she did it.
* * * Barbara had served one term as a Representative in Congress and then returned to Gotham City to spend an increasing amount of time as her alternate identity, tackling cases of increasing difficulty and foes of greater menace. Cormorant, an enemy, in the process of kidnapping a little girl, had shot and seemingly killed her as Batgirl, but she overcame even that adversity to nail her prey. That incident had heightened her feelings of inadequacy and lack of effectiveness. But she never let it happen again, and now she was crippled. She couldn't change that, it was her reality. And she had just two choices, keep going or stay in the darkness feeling pity for herself. And it wasn't her style to be defeated, she took conscience again of her strong nature and her ideals. * * *
Helena walked outside breathing her freedom; she had escape of her "jail". She couldn't go to Gibson or any of her friends, that was the first place the police would look for her.
She felt terrible, she was a fugitive, and she wasn't guilty of anything, she was innocent, she was a victim, and the police chased her like a criminal. She wondered if they searched for her mother's assassin as vehemently as they had been looking for her. She didn't have a place to sleep, to rest; she had nowhere to go.
* * *
Barbara had talked with Bruce about her idea to go back to a normal life before he disappeared, he had sent her to train with the martial arts master, Richard Dragon in escrima, the Phillipine art of stick fighting. She had starting to learn the discipline and that had helped her to hone her body and give her confidence anew.
Bruce had just left everything. But she couldn't judge him, she realized that in some ways he was doing the same that she had been doing: run away from reality. But she couldn't continue hiding herself, she needed to face her own fears.
She started searching for Helena, as well, she had forgotten her in the middle of her own pain.
* * *
Helena had broken her own record, three days outside the Detention Center without being caught. Her stomach rumbled, the last time she had eaten was almost 24 hours ago. She looked at the fruit in the market and then glanced around, no one was watching her. She took a bunch of bananas and ran down the streets. She entered an alley and jumped to the rooftop of a high building. Up there, she hid behind a water tank and began to eat the bananas. It didn't matter how many times Helena escaped; the police always caught her again. And this time was no exception.