Chapter 10: On edge

            Helena smiled as she put the order down in front of the not so sober customer and grabbed the money he had thrown on the desk, before running off to deal with another thirsty customer, which at least looked sober. She kept reminding herself that she only needed to last a half an hour before she could get some well earned rest. There was no major crisis in New Gotham and so both Helena Kyle and Huntress could take the night off.

"Huntress," Barbara's voice sounded less urgent than usual when she called, but still Helena couldn't stop a grimace as she casually reached up and activated her com necklace.

"Yeah, what's up," she whispered while mixing the cocktail one of her female customers had ordered.

"I need to go to a meeting tonight, so I won't be able to pick up Dinah from her friend's place," Barbara explained. "Please, Helena I just need you to pick her up at ten and drive her home. I will be out until around midnight. Will you do me the favor," her former mentor and current partner in crime fighting asked.

Helena thought it over. In the half year that had passed since she had moved out of the Clocktower her relationship with both Barbara and Dinah had changed. At first she had tried to get close to Dinah because of the milk glass incident, but the girl hadn't done any more weird things like that ever since. Instead she and Dinah had developed a light and witty friendship and she had begun hanging out every once in a while at the Clocktower just to be with Dinah and Barbara in a family like way. She shook the mixer with the cocktail.

Barbara too had changed a lot after going back to teaching. She had become more friendly and open. The reduction in training and "big sister" watching had done both of their lives and moods a world of good. It was easier to be around each other when there was a crisis this way. She poured the cocktail and put in the required lemon slice before putting it down on the tray meant for one of the two waitresses. "Sure, if you'll give me the directions to where that friend character lives, I'll go," she finally replied to a sigh of relief from Barbara.

Helena's heavy black hummer pulled up next to the neat looking suburban home. She nearly chuckled at the thought of Dinah at a place like this. The nearly thirteen year old girl had grown up in the city and lived in what could mostly be equated to a fortress hidden in a harmless looking high rise building. Her adopted mother was not some housewife, but the former Batgirl and the Oracle. She stepped out of the car and sauntered up the building in her black leather coat considering if Barbara had wanted to give Dinah's friend's parents some kind of scare by sending her. She pressed the door bell and waited.

The door was answered by a man in his late thirties, who immediately upon opening the door gave her that reproving look that most older people threw her way at first glance… and several glances later too. "I am here to pick up Dinah," she said.

The man's face changed into a look of disbelief and he gave her the once over again. Apparently she didn't quite fit his image of someone, who would pick up Dinah. "I'm sorry, come in. Dinah and Joy are still playing. I hope you don't mind, but I would very much like to wait and hear them finish their piece," he explained and opened the door fully to admit her.

"Welcome Miss?" He looked at her, but she just put her hands in her coat pockets and waited for him to take her to Dinah. She could faintly hear the sound of someone playing classical music nearby. Dinah was probably here to practice. She did recall that Barbara had mentioned that Dinah had met this girl Joy at her music school and that they were practicing for some kind of duet.

Finally tired of waiting for her to give her name the man guided her through their living room, where a woman probably the housewife was reading a book to the tones of a cello and a violin playing a beautiful and slightly playful tune at the far end of the house. Helena gave her a friendly nod as she followed the man to a room, which had been primitively soundproofed, but currently had the door open to allow the world outside to listen in.

Dinah was clearly completely lost in her music. She had that faraway look of concentration as she gracefully swung the bow over the strings, while her fingers danced across the neck of the reddish brown wooden instrument that Alfred had given her last Christmas. It was supposedly a very good cello, but she couldn't really tell the difference. Across from Dinah stood a dark blonde girl playing a violin with her eyes closed in concentration. The song increased in pace. The man motioned for her to wait like him in the door opening. The song slowed and the girls stopped playing. "Nice tune kiddo," she said as soon as Dinah took her bow of the strings.

"Hi Helena," Dinah said, rose, walked over and put her cello in the case.

"Joy, this is Helena, a friend of mine," Dinah said as an introduction of her to the smaller girl that was also carefully putting away her instrument.

"I thought your mom was going to pick you up," Joy commented.

"So did I, but she did warn me this morning that something could come up. You know how busy she is," Dinah explained and grabbed her coat hanging over the back of her chair, while hoisting up the cello case.

"Yeah, she had some meeting, but she said she'll be back around midnight," Helena supplied. "You ready, kid," she asked to which Dinah vigorously nodded.

Dinah and Helena sat in the chilly car. She had driven in silence, not really feeling they had anything to talk about. "So did mom really have a meeting or is there some crisis… No, wait if there had been a crisis, you'd be busy too and Alfred would've picked me up," Dinah said.

"According to Barbara there was a meeting, even if she didn't tell me about what and where," Helena commented.

"Ah, secrets, maybe she has found a boyfriend and is out on a date," Dinah suggested.

Helena gave Dinah a wry look. In all the time she had known Barbara, that woman had never to her knowledge dated. "Well, she did date before we got shot," Dinah replied to her unspoken answer.

"So are you and Joy good friends?" she asked.

"Just about as good as you and Sandy were, before she left town," Dinah commented. Helena grimaced at the sting of memory. Her best friend had disappeared a while before her mother died. Now Sandy had always been mysterious about whom she was outside of school, but that hadn't stopped them from being great friends. She could have used that friend a few months later.

"So does she know about… well, anything," she asked.

"Nope, not about my abilities, about where I live or about what my mom does after she leaves the high school every afternoon," Dinah said in a neutral tone. Helena didn't know if Dinah was feeling confined by the strict rules put down by Barbara, but she knew that she would have rebelled against them a long time ago has she been Dinah. But then they had quite different personalities.

"I can imagine it is hard to keep secrets like that from your friend," Helena commented, while they drove through the last bit of streets before coming up on the Clocktower.

"A little, but I do it for those I love. Besides did you tell Sandy about your abilities?" Dinah said and looked up at the Clocktower as they headed for the building's subterranean garage.

She focused on traffic for a moment, driving carefully down the narrow road into the garage. "No, but my abilities weren't really something I took much notice off until my mother died. They were mostly dormant," she explained as she parked the car.

The elevator doors slid open admitting the pair to the Clocktower. They barely took a step inside, before Delphi began beeping. Dinah and Helena looked at each other. "I swear that thing hates me," she cursed and walked over the computer system Dinah in tow.

The screen was showing a window reporting about some kind of police alert, but neither Helena nor Dinah knew what to do. A small program sprang up on screen saying something about a pager message, then disappeared just as quick. They looked at each other. "What do we do?" Dinah asked.

Helena just smiled and headed for the kitchen. "We wait. Barbara will be here in a few minutes any way… Better step away from the computers though. We wouldn't want mommy to throw a fit now do we," she said and out of the corner of her eye saw Dinah draw her hand away from the mouse like she had burned her fingers.

Right enough Barbara Gordon wheeled out of the elevator no more than ten minutes later finding both her and Dinah sitting in the couches watching TV. "Hi, Dinah, Helena," Barbara called out before getting comfortable in front of Delphi.

She felt a little playful, so she got up, walked over and sat on the metal railing. "You should go to bed," she said to Dinah and let herself drop backwards off the railing. The air whooshed past her face; she instinctively turned once in the air and landed gracefully on the floor below.

"Are you done with the stunt show," a suddenly grumpy Barbara asked impatiently.

"Whoa there, did Delphi interrupt some naughty date or…" She walked over to stand behind Barbara.

Barbara rolled away from her console and pointed a finger at one of the overhead monitors on which some kind of report was displayed. "Delphi just picked up a pattern in a couple of rape cases. It would seem we have a serial rapist, who has just upgraded himself to murderer," she explained.

Helena looked up at the screen and felt her formerly calm and mischief filled mind boil with rage and intent. She hated criminals in general, but rapists were the lowest kind of scum just barely removed from the absolute horror of any kind of crime dealing with children. "Do you have a clue or place, where he likes to come, because as of right now this bastard is on the top of my list of toys to break," she said.

Barbara turned around and looked at the screen, deciphering the information there for a while. Her eyes darted upstairs, where Dinah was fortunately long gone. "Yes, his latest victim and the first one he killed made it clear that he operates out of the parks here in downtown. He likes his girls young, blonde and preferably on the way home from a party. It would seem that he uses some kind of drug on them, then rapes them and he has started killing them afterwards. He has struck over five times in the last two weeks and he's accelerating. His last victim was found in some bushes this morning, so he might already be out there right now," Barbara explained. She turned and headed for the elevator, while Barbara spoke.

"Helena, where are you going?" Barbara yelled as the elevator doors started to slide closed.

She replied into her com, "Out to find that bastard and hopefully castrate him with some kind of blunt instrument."

Helena crouched in the tree staring out at the quiet park with her light sensitive eyes. She took care not to make any noises. She didn't really want to sit here, she'd rather be roaming around from park to park, but according to Barbara this one was his most likely next target. She hated waiting on criminals in general, but this felt like pure torture. She patrolled the nights of New Gotham regularly, Oracle kept an eye on crime, but not only had this guy done it several times, but he had done it right under her nose here in the middle of downtown.

She couldn't help imagining the images of the poor girls he had struck against and somehow in her mind their faces reminded her of her mother, of Barbara or even worse of Dinah. She clenched and unclenched her right hand half lost in thought, half focused on the quiet park.

It was early morning, Barbara was sitting in her wheelchair enjoying breakfast, when she stormed in. "Morning, Helena. Do you want some breakfast," Barbara asked in a neutral tone. Barbara had signed off a little past three, but she had insisted on staying out until sunrise.

"Maybe… Barbara, please tell me that he hasn't done it again," she pleaded.

"He hasn't as far as I can tell," Barbara explained.

She felt relief wash through her tired body and she sat down opposite of the red haired teacher to pour herself a bowl of cereal. "When I think about this guy out there and nobody seems to care enough to catch him, I just want to smash something. It hasn't even made the news that there is someone like this on the street," she said.

"This city is very jaded, when it comes to crime," Barbara conceded.

"What crime? Is it about that thing last night?" Dinah asked as she made her way into the kitchen, dressed and ready for school except for her breakfast. Both she and Barbara looked at each other, not wanting to discuss the subject around Dinah.

It was later that day, when Helena received a message from Barbara, just as she was about start her shift at the Dark Horse. "Helena, I have bad news. It seems like he did strike again last night. I just got the report off the police network. He was interrupted before he killed anyone, but he did catch a girl outside a park and dragged her into an alley," Barbara explained in the unemotional tone she often assumed when talking about horrible things.

"That's it. Tonight I am going to hunt this prick and when I find him…" She felt like killing that bastard. He had already ruined more lives than his own was worth. "I will tell the manager that I need a night off," she said into her com.

The air rushed around her as she thundered from roof to roof. The police were finally wising up to this bastard. They had increased patrols in the entire downtown area, but that didn't make her lean back and trust the usually incompetent police force of New Gotham. "Don't give me an ear full of boring statistics, you're sure he is here," she asked.

"It would make sense. He hasn't struck this far out of downtown before, but there is a park, a large party in this area and less police than downtown," Barbara explained as Helena crossed a street ten stories up in one huge leap.

Helena glanced into an alley as she leapt over it and briefly saw a figure standing at the corner facing the sidewalk and the park across the street. She stopped, vaulted backwards and let herself fall four stories down to land gracefully in the alley. The man was holding a canister looking alike a spray can of mace down along his leg and staring out at the street at the passerby's. "I'm gonna kill him," Helena said more to herself than to her com.

"Huntress, no," Barbara immediately protested, but she barely heard him. She was completely focused on the badly dressed man with his greasy hair and massive comb over. She lunged forward, grabbed him by his shoulders and tossed him over her shoulder into the opposite building a fair way down the alley.

The canister of stun gas rolled away from the shaken man. He staggered to his feet. "Ah, another bitch for my collection," he leered and almost drunkenly looked around for the canister.

"Huntress, he's not worth it," Barbara suggested at the noise of fighting.

"Bitch, oh no, now you done it," Helena said and jumped up delivering a massive circular aerial kick sending the now bleeding man against a large trash bin on the opposite side of the alley.

Helena reached down and lifted the bleeding man up. "You, bastard, ruined their lives. Now I am gonna ruin yours," she said and repeatedly hammered him against the trash bin, denting and buckling the steel behind him. The man was barely conscious at this point. She let him go and began repeatedly kicking the man in the crotch as hard as she could. It felt enormously satisfying.

"Helena for god's sake stop, he is not worth you ruining your life too. He is just a rapist. Helena! You're not done yet. Your mother's killer is still out here somewhere," Barbara yelled into her ear. She felt those words hit her like a cold shower. She had forgotten. This wasn't the target of her vengeance, even if this asshole deserved it. She took hold of the moaning man's collar, lifted him and hammered her hand into his face, finally knocking him unconscious.

"Oracle, call in the police, will you. I am done with this prick," she said and dropped the man at her feet.

"They are already on their way," Barbara reported tersely. Helena felt like screaming, now she felt unfulfilled even after what she had just done. And she knew who to blame.

The elevator doors slid open admitting a fuming Helena Kyle to their home. Dinah looked down on Delphi, her mother and the new arrival from her favorite late night hiding place in the dark place between a table and the end of the upper platform. Her mom hadn't caught her here yet as it was out of the way of all her cameras and could be reached and left without arousing suspicion.

"How dare you bring my mother into this," Helena yelled. Dinah had followed this and last night's hunt for the rapist from her hiding place. She had breathed a sigh of relief at his capture much like her mother, but she had been surprised by the enormity of Helena's rage.

"I needed to get your attention somehow. Damn it, Helena you weren't thinking. We don't kill. If there is one cardinal rule that you don't break it is that one. It is what separates us from those we hunt," her mother said. Dinah believed she was at least partly right. She understood however that you could get so angry that those principles didn't matter, but not why Helena had been so angry tonight.

"Those are your rules. All of this is your idea. I am just the replacement for your legs, am I not? Maybe I wasn't meant for this, huh. Maybe I should have been a criminal. At least then I would be able to do what needed to be done," Helena said.

Even from her hiding place she could see and sense that those words had hurt her mother. "If you feel that way, I don't think we should continue as partners. Why don't you think about if you really want to do this and if this is all just my idea? Tell me when you know," her mother turned around her wheelchair and drove off.

Helena stood staring after her mom for a while. Dinah knew she could slip back to her room, but Helena looked so lost, as she paced around the Delphi consoles. Dinah knew both her mom and Helena's habits well enough to know, where that pacing would lead Helena. She snuck down and waited for Helena to open the door and walk out to stand in front of the clock then she followed.

Helena was staring out over the city with all its electrical lights as she brazenly walked out onto the platform. She knew that Helena would hear her and didn't try to hide her coming. "What are you doing up?" Helena asked without turning around.

"I heard you guys fighting," she lied.

"Dinah, we'll be fine. We're just discussing procedure," Helena lied as well.

"No, you weren't. Mom had to talk you out of doing something stupid and you turned around and betrayed her trust by throwing her disability in her face. You hurt her, you know," Dinah said.

"Really and she didn't hurt me by bringing up my mother or by making me into who I am now. It is her fault that I was about…" Helena replied.

"You're so self-absorbed I am amazed that you can bring up enough empathy to actually care enough about other people to get upset about crime. My mom didn't make you who you are. She taught you crime fighting, but don't come here and claim that she in any way made you do it," Dinah said with anger in her voice.

Helena's eyes narrowed. "Self-absorbed huh, my mother was killed and no one did anything about it," she reiterated.

Dinah couldn't help rolling her eyes. "You always pull that one. Well, my biological mom was killed by criminals, when I was barely five. My mom was shot in her spine by an insane criminal and I nearly lost a lung that night as well. That was the same night your mother died as well. But oh, no it is always you, who has the right to be angry and hateful. Get over yourself for a minute here. Your anger is there, because you can't handle the facts. Nobody can make it better but you. Nobody can teach you how to handle that. I am tired of you hurting everyone around you and acting irresponsibly just because you deep down feel you have some kind of excuse," she explained.

Helena took breath for a reply then stopped and stared at Dinah. "How the hell do you even know all this? How do you know what to say?" she asked in a suspicious tone.

"You know how everybody keeps saying that I am gifted… Well I am. The rest is just personal experience and a little bit of anger," she admitted.

Helena looked out over the city for a few moments then looked back at her, just as she tucked an annoying strand of hair out of her eyes. "Maybe you're right," Helena admitted.

"Don't tell me. Go tell my mom," she commanded and pointed towards the door.

Helena gave her a warning look then headed inside. Dinah crossed her arms and stared out over the city. She felt like she had just done something good and really mature. "Cool," she said with a chuckle and headed inside. If she was lucky Helena wouldn't let it slip how much she had known.