Barbara swung at the sandbag with the escrima fighting sticks. She had discovered the Philippine weapon based martial arts recently and went to get instruction several times a week already. It was all apart of her plan to restart her life. It felt good to be training again, but she had a lot on her plate these days. Dinah had been declared ready to return to school, she was considering to return as well and Helena had moved in a month ago proving a vastly different challenge than Dinah had been. There was also that idea that kept spooking around in her head distracting her.
Helena didn't react the same way as Dinah had, which was natural given their different natures, ages and background. She had expected that, but she hadn't expected the nature of Helena's reaction. Where she had been a mischievous teen, she was now a holy terror. She had been the pep squad leader, now she dressed in black and revealing clothes and made fun of all the people she went to class with. Half the time Barbara wasn't even sure if she stayed in school after she had dropped her off at the door.
Dinah hadn't really reacted much to Helena's disruptive nature, mostly because Helena seemed to tone it way down around Dinah. She had no idea, why the black haired rebel was so meek around the blonde girl, but she had behaved that way ever since she had told Helena everything about Dinah and her dreams. She wondered how Helena would react when she learned of Dinah's telepathy or the fact that Dinah still had the same dream she had that night every once in a while. But then again she was sure they all remembered it in their own way.
Barbara stopped doing her exercises and found Helena standing in the door to the sun-lit training room. "Shouldn't you be at school?" she asked with irritation.
"I didn't feel like it," Helena said, but instead of walking off like she often did when in trouble, she kept standing on the door sill.
"Helena, you're a smart girl, your graduation is no more than half a year away. Why would you want to ruin that?" She couldn't help feeling irritated at the girl's unwillingness towards school. Then she noticed that Helena's hair was short, she had gotten her braid cut off.
"I won't ruin anything important, but that is not why I am here," Helena said in a challenging tone. She walked forward at a pace that looked suspiciously like she was getting ready to attack. Barbara was confused but kept a secure grip on her escrima sticks.
Helena suddenly swung at her. Barbara twisted in her chair and avoided the clumsy and telegraphed punch. Helena tried to make a high kick, but it was too much gymnastics and too little attack. Barbara parried it with a hard swing of her left fighting stick, while she hammered the right one into Helena's ribs. The girl grunted and collapsed to the floor grabbing her chest. "Stop," she commanded, but Helena just pushed herself back up staring at her through stormy eyes. "This is madness, Helena," she said.
Helena stormed at her again completely predictable yet incredibly fast. She was trying to bowl her out of her chair with a tackle, not a bad idea if she hadn't managed to press the butt end of her stick down on to the controls and make her chair back to the left. Helena changed course, but she was ready, quickly hammering the points of her sticks as hard as she could into the girl's chest, making her lunge end with a painful drop in front of her wheelchair. "Give up," she said and lifted her sticks for a finishing attack.
Helena's feet shot up and kicked her sticks out of position before rolling around and spinning up to stand again. She was getting impressed by Helena's agility and endurance if not by her fighting ability. She hadn't expected Helena to suddenly grab at her sticks. They became locked wrestling for the sticks. Barbara sensed that even with her well trained arms, she wouldn't last against this metahuman girl.
"Stop it," Dinah's voice suddenly screamed. Barbara glanced over Helena's shoulder to see the girl come running into the room. She was clearly upset by the sight of them fighting. However Helena didn't let up, and she knew from the almost berserk look in the girl's eyes that she would stop before she had hurt Barbara for the times she had sent her to the floor. She felt a drop of sweat roll down her nose and her arms were starting to shake from the strain. She saw Dinah grab hold of Helena and yell, "Let go… Let go already."
Helena slowly forced her hands out and to the side. Soon she would lose hold, but she would not under any circumstances let go. Dinah put both her hands on Helena's left one and tried to pull at it screaming for her to let go.
Suddenly Barbara rocketed back and almost out of her chair. Helena had let go and was now standing looking with a dumbfounded expression at Dinah. Dinah stared back at her with tear reddened eyes and a very pissed look, which couldn't scare anyone except people afraid of cuteness.
Helena looked over at her. She had to admit she was seething with anger at this unprovoked attack. "Why the hell did you do that?" She demanded.
Helena looked sorry and glanced at Dinah as if to say that she didn't want to discuss it in front of her daughter. "Dinah, it's okay now. Helena and I were only training hard," she lied and knew instantly that her little daughter suspected. But Dinah was ever forgiving and nodded. "I thought you were getting ready for school tomorrow," she said. Dinah looked at her questioningly, shrugged and left the training room albeit slowly.
"Now, what did you think you were doing?" She turned and gave Helena her most angry stare. The girl at least had the decency to look embarrassed.
"I… I wanted to test you. I wanted to see for myself how tough Batgirl was. I guess it got out of hand," Helena admitted.
"You guess… You attacked me without a reason. Helena, you're letting your anger control you. And it is ruining your life," she said with conviction. She needed to find a way to control Helena's anger before it consumed her or led her so far astray that it ruined her life or even affected their safety here.
"Look I'm sorry I just wanted to… I don't know why I did it," Helena said, but she wasn't buying it one moment. Helena usually didn't attack unprovoked and while she believed, that measuring herself against Batgirl was apart of the reason for Helena's attack, she was sure it wasn't the entire story. Helena backed away and ran out of the room, leaving her sitting confused in the bright sunshine.
A few hours later Barbara looked down the papers that had sat in front of her for as long as she had been in the room. If she signed them Helena would become her ward. She would be responsible for the unruly and angry teen. She had locked herself in her room since their fight in the training room, but she still had the trouble in school and her first order of business as guardian would have to be finding a way to put a stop to Helena's antics. This was the last chance of ignoring the problem, the last chance of removing Helena's problems from their life. But she knew that was not right and not what she was going to do. Barbara picked up a pen and signed the form.
She opened the door and drove her wheelchair to the ledge. Leaning back she took in the view of the whole city. New Gotham stretched out below the Clocktower leaving her with a beautiful of the afternoon over the city. She had come out here to think. She needed to channel Helena's anger somehow. She wondered how Bruce had done it with Dick.
And then she suddenly realized what she could do and smiled at the beautiful logic and simplicity of it all. Her idea of becoming a one-woman support organization for superheroes everywhere could be expanded. She had the perfect candidate for a new hero for New Gotham in Helena. The teen needed something to focus on. Training to be a vigilante would provide that easily. It would allow her to channel her anger towards the man who had murdered her mother into fighting criminals in general. Helena could be taught discipline. She could do it, it was teaching a different curriculum but it could be done.
Barbara deflated slightly as she realized that she would still have to convince Helena. There was also another problem. Dinah would suddenly be living in a dangerous command center for a vigilante and her supporter instead of the shielded home of an unhappy teen and her soon-to-be guardian. Sooner or later Dinah would learn the truth, and from there it was not a long step to her finding out about Batgirl and even worse Black Canary. She had hidden the truth for her daughter for a long time.
Had Dinah been anything but her daughter, she could have sent the girl away for her own safety. But that had not been possible for many years now. That was her daughter and there was no way of giving her up even for a short while. She wouldn't allow it to happen at least not for many years. But maybe it was long past the time for truth. Dinah deserved to know, if nothing else it would help her understand, why they had been shot. Barbara looked up at the clouds for a moment then turned her wheelchair around and drove back inside.
Barbara knocked on Helena's door. "Helena, please let me in. I want to make you an offer," she said and waited patiently.
After nearly a minute a meek looking Helena opened the door. Barbara easily spotted the freshly lain make-up probably to conceal puffy eyes from crying. Helena was hiding her grief. "What?" Helena asked with a tone of challenge that would have been impressive if Barbara hadn't immediately seen through Helena's façade and seen the grieving girl beneath.
"Helena, I've been thinking about what you've said and did. I think I can help you with a lot of things. You're angry. I understand. You think no one is doing enough to find your mother's killer. I agree. You feel like attacking anything and everything. Maybe I can give you a better outlet for your aggressions. Interested," she asked.
Helena stood absolutely still for a moment then nodded. "Come with me," Barbara said and guided the girl to the central space in front of the clock.
"Alright Helena, you know that I was Batgirl. Being Batgirl was a large part of who I was for a very long time. My fight against crime was based on my experiences in life and from what happened around my father. As I spent more time as a vigilante, the life in itself became central to my being. When I lost the use of my legs, I also lost a part of myself. Now ever since we moved in here, I've been thinking about what I could do to regain something of that. I had planned to create a way for me to provide information, inventions and my investigative skills to heroes around the country, because most of them would rather be out beating in the heads of various crooks than cooped up in their lairs trying to get their computer to give them access to stuff they have no chance of getting near anyway. I wanted to do that," she explained.
"What does it have to do with me?" Helena asked.
"I want to train you to become a vigilante. You said it yourself; nobody is doing what is needed. Well, I can give you the training and provide you with the support that would enable you to go out there and avenge yourself on those who deserve it criminals, murderers and other scum like that," Barbara explained and looked at Helena waiting for the mocking comment that she was sure would follow.
Helena rose and paced around behind her in silence for a few seconds, "alright I'm interested."
"Don't say yes just yet, there will be rules and demands on your time that you might not want to accept. Now if you don't follow them I'll consider any agreement between us null and void. I won't be giving out second chances, because when you finally hit the streets neither will the criminals," she said.
"Never try to be a sales person, you'd suck," Helena commented. "What are the rules," she asked.
"One, until I say you're ready you'll train and do what I ask of you, when I ask you to. Two, you'll continue going to school, being vigilante requires muscles in other places than your body to be in good shape as well. Three, you won't go out on any missions without my express permission. Four, absolute secrecy I don't want to have to fear someone like the Joker showing up on our doorstep because you feel like living dangerously. Five, I set the rules, and I am also the only one, who gets to change them," she explained hoping that none of the rules were so drastic that Helena couldn't accept them. But Helena just looked at her in concentration; Barbara could nearly hear the teen's mind working over time.
"There is one final thing. I am unable to finance any kind of big operation and while I know I could get the money from certain places, I'd rather we were independent of any backers. I know you don't want anything to do with your father, but we're going to need your trust fund. So if you wouldn't mind I'd like to setup some kind of monthly money transfer from it, so that we can work without anyone looking over our shoulder," she suggested.
Helena seemed to think it over than stretched forth a hand. "We have a deal," she said as they shook hands. Barbara felt a shudder going down her spine and she had the sense that there had just been a major change in their lives.
She stopped the wheelchair down the hall from Dinah's improvised school room. Inside the girl was supposed to be writing an essay. She felt a twinge of apprehension. She had no idea, how Dinah would react, when she learned that she had been Batgirl or that her biological mother had been a heroine called Black Canary. Barbara's finger hovered above the button that would send her forward. "It has to be," she admonished herself and pressed her finger down.
To her surprise Dinah wasn't writing, but rather sitting in the wide window sill looking out at the world outside seemingly lost in thought. Barbara smiled as she saw the girl's round face and blonde hair in the sunlight. "Dinah," she said.
"Hi, mom," Dinah said and reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her left ear. She reluctantly turned away from the window and turned to her wearing a guilty and unhappy expression that she hadn't expected.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
Dinah looked at her and nodded, "I'm sorry for what I did."
"I wasn't aware you had done anything," she admitted.
Dinah continued to look unhappy and cast a glance out the window again, while saying, "I thought you knew… I entered Helena's mind and made her let you go. I know you've told me to never use my telepathy on unwilling people, but I just couldn't… I couldn't let you go on fighting."
Barbara's mind nearly rebelled at the thought of what Dinah had done. She hadn't been paying attention again, if Dinah was capable of such telepathic manipulation without her seeing the signs. "I didn't know you could do that," she said and rolled closer to the window sill Dinah was sitting in.
"I wasn't either. You were fighting. I was trying to make her let go. Suddenly I was in Helena's mind. I didn't know why but I screamed for her to let go and then I was outside again she had done it. Helena knew I did it too, I could see it in her eyes. It's the same look people, who don't understand why I have abilities, give me," the prodigious little girl explained.
"Shh, it's alright. I bet you that Helena will forgive you if you promise not to do it again. Your powers shouldn't be used like that. It is very wrong to violate the privacy of someone, unless they ask you too or there are no other ways," Barbara explained.
Dinah sat looking at her for a while and Barbara wondered how much longer she would be able to tell Dinah these things and have her believe her. It could very well be over in a few minutes. "Dinah, I wanted to admit a mistake I've made as well," she said.
Dinah looked at her expectantly. "You know I've told you over the years that the woman you saw in your dreams was Batgirl and that I didn't know why you dreamt of her," she said. Dinah nodded. "Well I lied to you and I am sorry. I knew very well why you dreamt of her. It was because I was her. I was Batgirl," she said.
The little girl tilted her head to the side and studied her like she was comparing her to some mental image. "Your eyes, they are the same. You're Batgirl," Dinah said and seemed not to be as angry as she had feared. "Cool, I've always admired you mom, but this is so much better. When you say people need protectors, you were talking about yourself. This is so cool, you even knew Batman… and Robin and maybe even someone like Nightwing or… Superman," Dinah was staring at her wide eyed.
Barbara felt her heart sink at little, but she couldn't stop now. "Dinah, you've actually met Superman," she said.
"No way, I would have remembered a guy wearing his underwear on the outside," Dinah claimed seriously.
"He was at your mother's funeral as was Batman and Nightwing and many other heroes… They came to honor your mother. Dinah, your mother was the Black Canary one of the founders of the Justice League and one of the first if not the first female superheroine," she explained and saw Dinah's eyes widen.
"Both my mothers were superheroes. Wow," Dinah said and sat staring at her with adoration. Barbara felt strange, she had expected Dinah to be angry at her for hiding the truth for so long, but she didn't waste time pointing this out to her daughter.
After a few moments Dinah did however ask, "Why are you telling me this now?"
There it was another question she had been dreading slightly, but she seemed to be on a roll today, so she explained, "Dinah, I can't be Batgirl anymore, but I still want to help people. So I am. I am not sure about all the details yet, but you know I know a lot about science and crime, so I will help out other heroes so they can do their job better… and train Helena to be the new protector of New Gotham."
Dinah looked at her with a thoughtful expression. "Helena wants to be a superheroine," she asked.
"Yeah, and I will teach her how," she answered.
"Okay, what can I do to help?" Dinah immediately asked in return.
Barbara had feared moments like this a lot more than anything else and there would be many more in the future. Dinah was only nine years old, so it would be easy to convince her that she couldn't help now, but what about in five or in seven years, when she reached an age where she could do a difference. It might be hypocritical but there was no way she would let Dinah out on the streets as a vigilante with or without any training. "Dinah, you're nine years old. It is too dangerous for you to help and it is unhealthy for kids your age to train in those kinds of things that one needs to train in as a hero," she said and immediately saw Dinah's happy expression drop.
"Listen, Dinah, maybe in time you can help me here in the Clocktower. It will be just as important as being the hero out in the field, trust me," she said as consolation even if she didn't plan on keeping that promise even far into the future.
"Okay, so we're going to be superhero central," Dinah said with a slightly less grim expression.
"It is going to mean some changes around here. You won't be able to take any of your friends home… ever. You can't talk about it to anyone, not about my past, your mother, Helena or this place," she explained.
"No problem," Dinah said, but Barbara knew that Dinah had no idea how hard it was going to be. She regretted a little putting her daughter in this situation, but New Gotham no longer had Batman to protect it and it was sure to need it soon. Barbara left with her head full of plan and ideas.
