Thanks for your post, you are so nice... I mixed some parts of Slick to this one...
Helena had dissappeared for almost three years. After her return, she had contacted Barbara, and had insisted that she had been living with her "uncle" and that he had given her a trust fund. Barbara told her that Selina didn't have any family but Helena had defended her story so she wouldn't have to tell her that she become a burglar to survive, and to hide her real activities as burglar to the red head and the real origin of her luxurious life.
Her meta-abilities helped her to steal a lot of money. Money that she used to come back to New Gotham, buy an apartment and continue with her criminal career.
Barbara easily figured it out; she had talked with Helena, asking her to change her life. The brunette told her she loved that life, that she couldn't, just as Barbara couldn't stop being a crimefighter; but she didn't want to lose her again. She asked Barbara for the opporunity to continue their friendship and to separate the friendship from their profesional careers.
That wasn't new for Barbara, she had the same relationship with Selina. She accepted it and kept in contact with the girl that she had meet known since she was a kid.
Helena commited many successful, high profile robberies of stores and jewelers, but she was very clean, she never left traces. Barbara had tried to catch her unsuccessfully, she was as good as her mother.
Helena always came back to her; they kept in contact, making a truce to talk when it happened; Barbara was her confidant in many ways, and the red head couldn't deny help to her, always having hope the she would be able to convince her to forget her criminal life. It was strange bond between them.
Downstairs, Barbara opened some files at the computer as Dinah and Helena entered the room.
"The story Dinah told us isn't that far-fetched," Barbara explained. "She told me that the guy behind this is Dr. Destiny. He uses the Materioptikon to make his dreams a reality. The Materioptikon is a ruby dreamstone created by The Sandman, he irradiated it with nuclear cells and special gamma rays that altered his molecular structure."
"Dammit, what did she just say?" Helena blinked looking Dinah.
"Techno babbling." The blond girl rolled her eyes.
"Materioptikon it's a kind of stone which transforms his dreams in to reality." Barbara looked them, repeating what she had said.
"Better." Helena said.
Dinah nodded.
"His name is John Dee. He's a caped, skull-faced super villain." Barbara showed them a picture on her computer screen.
"Yikes, he's no prize," Helena joked.
"He's been in several fights with the JLA. They made him spend a considerable time in limbo. The abuse of his Materioptikon robbed Dr. Destiny of his ability to dream, the result of which had transformed his body into a virtual living skeleton. The Materioptikon is a kind of magic. Under special conditions it can alter reality to his every whim and desire. We are living a nightmare that he created for you two."
"We need find him in order to take the gem and return our lives to it's natural order," Dinah added.
"Right." Barbara typed at keyboard at an amazing rate.
"I like being a thief," Helena said. "It's fun and it's a family tradition."
"But your dad was a superhero," Dinah said sarcastically.
"Don't go there."
"Some things never change," Dinah sighed.
"Your mother's lawyer died the same day she was murdered. A few hours after her death," Barbara explained to Helena. "Do you remember? All his papers were burned in a big fire. You never got a penny from her inheritance. The man that took you out of the city told you he was going to take care of you because he was your mother's brother. I checked his files. That was a lie."
Helena leaned over the screen.
"He took you to that boarding school telling you he was your uncle," The red head explained. "When I went to check his files, his name doesn't exist. He just wanted to take you far away from here."
"Who was he then?"
"Maybe someone that Dr. Destiny paid. If Dinah is telling the truth he changed your future," Barbara said. "You began stealing as a way to survive."
All of this was hard to understand, much less believe. Helena looked at her in silence for a few moments. "How could he know who was I and who my mother was?"
"Because you never want to wear a mask. Your identity was clear," Dinah said.
Helena glared to her.
"He surely recognized you as Helena Kyle." Barbara looked at her. "Everybody knew who your mother was and what happened to you. It was all over the news. I looked for you after the accident and I couldn't find you. I wanted to bring you back here with me. I searched for a long time, but alot of the time I was closed off from the world by my own pain. I was so stupid!"
"Don't worry," Helena said, "I was just your friend's daughter. You had no obligation to me."
"You were my responsibility!"
"Barbara you couldn't know!" Helena exclaimed. "He burned the papers that stated my mother's wishes to put me in your custody. Barbara, you may be an Oracle, but can't know everything."
"This is not a papers fact, Helena." Barbara was angry with herself. "I knew you, you were a kid. I knew you were alone. You needed someone and...and..."she felt the words stuck on her tongue.
"She loves you," Dinah interrupted. She knew how difficult it was for both women to open up to each other.
"Dinah..." Barbara looked her.
"It's true! You two are the most closed off people that I've ever met! We have a better chance of seeing Alfred in shorts than seeing you two open up your hearts to one another!"
"Bullshit!" Helena growled, feeling uncomfortable.
"Okay, okay! Let's get the plan underway," Dinah said, trying to get back on track.
Barbara coughed. "Okay."
"First part of the plan," Helena said, "I need to change these awful clothes."
"Alfred!" Barbara shouted.
A few seconds later he appeared with a handful of clothes and handed it to Helena.
She took the pile and looked them over. "Hey," she said, "These are cool. Did you buy these, Barbara?"
"Dinah did. She knows what you like."
Helena smirked at the teen. "I don't know how you know these things, blondie, but these are cool. Thank you."
"Just don't call me blondie."Dinah sighed.
"Okay... Kid."
Dina moved her head.
"Let's go to rest, tomorrow we can discuss this, okay?" Barbara said looking both girls.
"l'm telling you there's no reason to panic." Barbara turned the page of the book that she was reading.
"Something panic-worthy always happens right after you say that."
"Look, she's not just a runaway. She's a metahuman like you. Now you know better than I do how hard the world is for kids like that"
"I don't like her, it's not normal for her to suddenly appear with a whole fantastic story. I'm sure she is looking for something else."
Barbara watched the Tv screen "Helena stop changing the channels, you are making me crazy."
"All this crime fighitng and no social life is making you grouchy." The brunette looked her. Barbara lowered her book "I'm not grouchy! I'm just... realistic. Have a heart, she told me things that were true. She knows things that only you, Alfred and I know, no one else."
Helena leaned back on her chair and continued changing the channels. "She is a spy. Someone sent her here, I don't understand why, but I'm sure of that."
"I don't think she is a spy."
"So... she just suddenly appeared and told you this fantastic story about a guy that changed the past including you and me. She told you details that nobody else knows, just a few people."
"Yes." Barbara placed her book aside.
"How long have you know her?"
"Three weeks a month ago..."
"Three weeks?" Helena glared to her "And you're just mentioning this now?"
"I thought you might overreact." Barbara had began to feel exasperated with the sound of the channels changing.
"I'm not overreacting." Helena explained "I'm very calmly pointing out we have no idea who this girl is. I'm worried! What if she is a psycho? What if she tries to kill you?"
Barbara moved downwards and snatched the remote control out of her hands. "Stop that!"
"Hey!" the young woman protested.
"I ran a background check." The redhead put the control on her night table.
"You did? What'd you find?"
"She said she is from Missouri, I ran a facial recognition auto search on year book photos from that state going back five years." She picked up a paper and a picture from her night table and handed it to Helena, it was a picture of Dinah from years ago. "Meet Dinah Redmond of Opal, Missouri."
"Known by other aliases as, oh, 'the truth'." Helena interrupted.
"You lied to me too."
"Barbara, don't start again, you are not going to convince me to stop being a burglar."
"Well, I will keep trying, maybe someday I will convince you. You know you can have a better life without being a burglar."
"I'm not going to accept a single penny from my father!"
Barbara glared at her and continued reading the paper in her hands. "Opal, Missouri, population two thousand, five hundred and forty-one. Some truancy, she's run away and disappeared a year ago. Nobody knows where she is. So, she is not some criminal mastermind."
"So I guess I should be relieved she's not an axe murderer?"
"Yes, Her parents didn't even report her missing. Sounds like maybe she had a reason to run away and her parents didn't care about it..."
"She told is Black Canary's daughter, why do you trust her? Barbara, with all this top-secret super classified intel around here? She could get into anything! You told me she knew your Delphi system!"
"You are here too and your record is worst than her's."
"Well... but...I'm almost part of the family." Helena said unconfortably.
"Yeah, right." Barbara smiled. "Look, I checked her, she's got incredible potential. I just have this gut feeling that-"
"So do I. Like I'm about to get sucker-punched."
"Helena, please." Barbara begged.
"I'm going to help you, but I've been out in the field on my own for a very long time and that's the way I like it." The brunette pointed out.
"Okay, listen to me," the red head sat up in bed and said in firm voice. "I'm trying to help you prove that you are innocent, and I have a clue thanks to Dinah. She helped me break you out of jail. Now, whether you like it or not, we are a team. T-E-A-M. And during the time while we are a team, we are going to work together, do you understand? You are going to respect her and she is going to respect you until all of this is done. I don't know if her story is made up or not, but I want to help her, because I want to know if all the things that she has told me until now are true; so, all I ask of you is to be prudent, be patient and don't go anywhere out of the Clock Tower. Got it?"
Helena growled in low voice.
"Got it?" Barbara asked again.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, now give me the control."
Barbara glared at her and gave her the remote control "Watch only one tv program and stop to changing channel like a lunatic," she picked up her book and read while the brunette turned the TV on.