No reviews for last chapter...(sob)

Huntress...

Black Canary left the Justice League. Said there were too many memories there. She couldn't return to the apartment she'd stayed with Ollie in, either, deciding to stay with Helena as she searched for a new place. Helena and Barbara (read former Batgirl) had gone to gather things for her. Clothes, books, dishware. Things that were on the list Dinah had given them. Helena had also put a picture of Dinah and Ollie at some sort of function grinning happily into the frame in as well. Days later, she'd find it on the hallway floor, dent about it, and glass broken around it. She'd take it to get fixed, and she'd put it back in Dinah's bedroom. It hadn't gotten thrown again.

...I've resolved to call you that from now on...

Dinah spent her days going to shoots, deciding to focus some time on her model career again. Magazines called her new look "haunting" and "irrevocably sad", but "beautiful". Those words had been about a gig she'd done for GAP. Needless to say, Dinah hadn't been called back again, despite how well the images were received. GAP could only say that that wasn't the look they were going for.

...I must distance myself from you...

The time Dinah wasn't at a shoot, and Helena wasn't at school, they spent at the recently injured Barbara's apartment. Now going by the name Oracle, Barbara was a glorified librarian. She decided that fighting from a wheelchair wasn't her thing, and started to gather information. Sometimes, she sold it for money. Most of the time, she reported crimes and other such things. Rarely, anything was done. It was on one of these days that Helena and Dinah were watching movies and eating ice cream on her couch when a sudden inspiration took Barbara.

"I love my father, but Gotham police are inept."

What a shocker.

...You taint everything I do...

Barbara turned from the megaplex of computer equipment she'd acclimated and rolled herself in front of the television, earning moans and groans from Helena and Dinah. "I have an idea."

Helena laughed. "Babe, you're a brain. You always have an idea."

Dinah laughed lightly as well. She hadn't laughed "laughed" since the funeral. She was a monotone, monochrome wonder.

"No, a real idea. None of us are affiliated with any teams right now, and we're all helping out Gotham any way we can, but what if we did it together?"

Helena cocked her head, halfway in interest, halfway to watch as David Boreanaz took off his shirt on yet another TV show. "Form a new Batfam?"

Barbara shook her head. "No. No Bat connections. Just us."

...You taint me...

"If it pisses off Batman, I'm in."

Barbara shook her head in consternation. "It's not about pissing off Bruce."

Helena smiled. "Maybe not for you."

Dinah finally contributed something to the conversation. "What would we call ourselves?"

Good question.

...sometimes I feel you inside my head. Circling like a vulture, just waiting for me to weaken...

"Well...I've decided I'm going to call myself Oracle."

Helena studied the redhead in front of the television. "How about we call you 'brain' since you're obviously the head of this little flock?"

She shook her head. "No. Oracle."

Helena grinned. "You just want to be a Roman/Greek deity."

"I've always imagined myself slightly goddess-like."

"More like Medusa, babe."

Dinah laughed silently at the two squabbling women. Though there'd been some tough moments when the two first started meeting regularly, both having been with Nightwing and having fought for many years over Gotham; they were both her friends and had put it aside.

"I believe we were discussing a name?"

"Well, since Red over here is a 'goddess', why don't we call ourselves something mythical?"

Barbara laughed. "Sometimes, the fact that you're a kindergarten teacher is so clear."

"What does that mean?"

"Sometimes, you're simple."

"Bitch."

...I won't beg. I refuse...

"So...we've got an Oracle, a Black Canary, and the wonderful modest Huntress...who are we?"

Oracle thought. Hard. "We're hunters. For justice. I'm tired of always having to wait for justice to be wrought out. I don't want to play it restrained and non-violent as Batman has trained me to do. I want justice. Real justice."

Huntress cocked an eyebrow. "Does this mean I get to shoot people?"

"No."

"Non-fatally shoot people?"

"Yes."

Dinah thought outloud. "Well...we've got...a Canary, which is a bird..."

"You're so smart."

"...and a Huntress..."

"Another excellent point."

"And an Oracle...which is like an owl..."

"(sigh)"

...I won't beg, not even for you...

"Birds of prey."

Barbara and Helena stopped in their witty repartee and turned to Dinah. They both stared for a minute before nodding. "Sounds good. Though, I think calling ourselves the Furies would have really intimidated."

"And Bird of Prey doesn't?"

"No."

"It's a serious category of bird. They eat other birds."

"Who's going to seriously be afraid of a bird...no offense, Canary."

"Plenty of people are afraid of birds."

"No, they're afraid of getting shit on by birds."

...I love you, Huntress...

Dinah watched as her friends argued for the better part of an hour. Eventually, it tapered off as they slowly started to set the ground rules. It would be a three-way partnership, with no one directly answering to anyone else. Oracle would provide Canary and Huntress with information, and they would act on it and report back. Finally, Oracle wheeled off to start a journal or something.

Dinah knew her moment. "How's Nathaniel?"

Helena smiled. "Neutral, as usual. He's like a really nice color beige."

"He's blue."

"I mean, personality-wise. It's comforting."

"I don't think love is supposed to be comforting."

"It's better than agonizing."

Silence.

"So...how's the face-less wonder?"

"Why should I know?"

"Cause you were his creepy girlfriend for a while. Some of the League tell me he's slipped even farther into isolation. Barely comes out of his room anymore."

"Oh, he comes out, alright."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing."

...but I can't be in love with you anymore.

Love, Vic