A/N: Oh my gosh it's finally here! It has gotten out of its state of stuck-ness. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews, for encouraging me to keep it up. Love you guys.
Incidentally, Selina hates East City Park. It's all too much like a white-washed tomb, pretty things carefully, painstakingly covering the ugly things. The park is like a safe haven that laughs away the darkness that may be around every single corner but you have to enter that dark in order to get in and out.
It makes her feel empty.
So for Blackmail to request Catwoman and Stray's presence there is no mind-puzzler. Once they enter the park and take the street that Prezini's is on, it will be pretty easy to blend into the dark. They may even have access to his hideout.
She watches Tim carefully from the corner of her eye as he moves rapidly like a snake, watching everything, always alert. She's sure that he's not thinking of anything else, because he's just like his adoptive father. Never being distracted by what she knows is a familiar place for Tim.
It's not like she doesn't know that Nightwing and Red Robin hung around the pizza parlor, and even the oldest birdie would take a chance and order pizza in his nighttime identity.
No. There's a mission, it's been hammered into Tim Drake-Wayne's head, and the mission must always be successful.
Why did she think that could ever change for Tim? That there might be other more important things to focus on than running wildly around trying to fix the innate nature of mankind, other better interests to pursue?
Like himself?
Stray glances at her, signals that he's crossing the open way to the alley across the street and she nods sharply. Tim sticks to the shadows, it's embedded in his very being to, and it's been in her all her life.
The dark of the alley is almost sickening with both the smell of trash somewhere and the greasy pizza being baked just next door, mixed with rain and cold. Her eyes scan for glints of movement in the black, and a passing car with gleaming headlights reveals a small flare of green.
A pair of glasses, similar to their own, with the dark green taint.
Stray freezes. But he doesn't flinch, doesn't take a step back, just stands there straight, like he's not scared.
But he may be used to sneaking up on someone from behind, scaring people to death. He's not used to planned meetings with his enemies.
"Follow me," a low, almost gentle voice from the dark murmurs. It's a split second and they're trailing Blackmail; Selina relies on sound, she's used to it, Tim takes logical ways and is probably calculating their distance, their speed, determining their end destination.
Blackmail moves like they do, like a ghost, weaving his way through the park, gluing himself to walls. Selina notes his massive frame, how he knows the streets like the back of his hand. Somebody that knowledgeable has always been someone to be concerned about. If you know Gotham that well, she may be a good friend of yours.
And then they're tracing through the sides of a small apartment complex, that curves in on itself, surrounding everything with their towering, broken down buildings.
Blackmail pauses to glance around the complex and then climbs up to the second floor by gripping the balcony railings. They follow, but Selina slows down, studying his every move.
Blackmail hastily unlocks the door to one of the apartment buildings and rushes in.
Selina suddenly stops, his boots scraping against the concrete, and Tim looks back at her. With the way that his mouth is turned, and the incline of his head she can tell, even without looking into his eyes, that he's doubtful too, he's hesitant. But he's going in, no matter his fears.
But then Blackmail hisses, his black silhouette harsh against a light streaming from the apartment, "Please! Enter my humble abode!"
Selina looks hard at Blackmail, at the open door, now shining fresh warm light, quite like a humble abode, but is this what burglars do? Simply invite other burglars into their homes?
Something Tim is definitely not used to.
But he doesn't hold back, follows Blackmail in. Selina feels suddenly awkward, and her hand instinctively reaches for Tim's. Leather rubbing against leather, claws interlocking, but once they're in, she lets go, and Blackmail slams the door.
He's dressed in black, with dark cargo pants and suspenders over a black turtleneck sweater, and those glasses conceal his identity just like theirs. His combat boots stomp against the ground as he shuts the blinds, pulls curtains on every window.
The apartment is dimly light, with a few uncovered light bulbs hanging over the kitchen counter-top that can't be more than ten feet away, an ancient TV in the corner, a few pistols on the wood table in the center of the room. Bare spaces contrast against stuff crowded together. Books. Books everywhere.
"It's nice isn't it?" Blackmail says with a soft smile. "I try to make it friendly."
"Yeah it's real chic," Selina dares to smile back, crossing her arms over her chest. "Unless you've already notified the police that we're here."
Blackmail stops, still gripping a curtain, still facing the window. "Why would I do that to you?" he asks slowly.
"I don't trust you," she retorts sharply.
"He does," he answers, looking back at Stray, that smile bringing lines across his face, indicating age, worn and...warmth. "You trust me, don't you, little stray?"
Tim doesn't answer, but his hands tighten into fists; he's nervous, Selina's seen him do that plenty of times while he's been with her. "I don't understand you," he finally says, sounding genuinely curious.
Some emotions can escape when you're not under the shadow of the Bat.
"Let me enlighten you then," Blackmail says, raising his glasses and revealing blue-grey eyes that are disarming and almost otherworldly, not seeming to belong to someone like him. "Like I told you last time we talked, I'm just trying to help. I don't know your background, and frankly, I don't understand you either. How do I know that you've not already notified the police that I'm here?" A poignant glance at Catwoman.
"See, we're gonna have to trust each other," Blackmail says, his hands coming together to signify the union. "That's how we survive. Everybody who is like us, who isn't...privileged...like some, we have to stick together and only then are we strong."
"Not everybody is like that," Stray breathes, and Blackmail stares at him, smile becoming dead if not gone altogether. "Alicia Caldwell wasn't like most 'privileged'. She cared about us."
Selina swallows, bites her lip.
"How do you know that, Stray?" Blackmail asks, taking a few steps toward him, folding his arms over his chest.
Tim shrugs, shakes his head. "She did all sorts of things for us. She...gave Christmas to the kids in the Narrows. I remember that."
Easy, gentle, truth-like lies, and Tim's innocence with a touch of damage emanates. Catches onto Blackmail's sleeves.
"Huh," he murmurs, one eyebrow coming down in thought. "I think I remember that. She had a big party at that Wayne guy's place."
No, no, no-
"And you were there," Tim replies.
Selina closes her eyes, shifts her weight from one foot to another.
"Hey, how'd you know that?" Blackmail chuckles, seemingly impressed with Stray's knowledge.
"I saw a video of her and I think you were there. That was you, right?"
Blackmail laughs again and nods, "Yeah that was me. I was working a job there, somebody scheduled an appointment." Emphasis, because he wants to remind Tim to make an appointment, make an appointment.
"Oh?" Tim smiles a quiet, interested smile, because he's such a good liar, he's craving information, but taking it all in like a child with chocolate. Savoring. Slow.
"Yeah. It didn't work out though, some stuff happened. And then Wayne left the designated area so yeah, it fell through."
"You couldn't have just done it without him?"
"Well, he was supposed to be part of the equation. He was supposed to be with that guy-" Blackmails snaps his fingers, trying to recall, "-yeah, Lucius Fox, his right hand man. Wayne's drink was supposed to be poisoned. It'd look really bad on Fox, especially when the charity funds that he was supposed to be handling were suddenly...inexplicably gone."
Selina stares. Tim breathes, "Wow."
His heart must be racing a mile a minute.
Blackmail smiles and nods in pride. He turns and picks up a bottle on the scratched wood table and pours some cheap wine into two glass tumblers. "It was a good plan. But there were lots of conditions. And Wayne just up and left the party and so it didn't go through." He turns and hands the glasses to Selina and Tim. "See how detailed all the work is though? Fox was gonna seem like a big money-grubber, who felt that he wasn't being paid enough or something. One of the Wayne kids would then take on the work from their poor dead daddy and everybody would think Fox was going to manipulate them into giving him what he wanted."
Selina glances at Tim, tempted to tell him, no, baby, you're under eighteen, don't drink that crap, but she can see that he's keeping his hands still against the glass because they're shaking, he's staring at the wine because if he didn't, he'd lose his cool.
Panic.
"It just didn't work out that time. Thing you need to know about me, Stray, is that I'm a good storyteller."
Say that again.
"Some would say that I'm a good liar."
Aren't we all?
"I just do a good job for good people," Blackmail says, leaning down a little to catch Stray's eyes. "They deserve it."
Tim looks up at Blackmail and nods, small smile appearing on his face. "So you're...willing to help us?"
Blackmail's face is soft, and he tilts his head slightly, studying Tim's face. Like he's trying to peer through the glasses to his eyes. "You bet," he replies quietly. "People like you, you've suffered too much at the hands of those monsters like Wayne, like Caldwell. I wanna give them a scare, I wanna help you. 'Cause I've been in a place not so different from yours."
Blackmail straightens, looks hard at Catwoman. "Surely you see that."
And she nods, the sooner she can get out of here the better.
He nods back, that smile growing by the second. "Let's play a game of trust. What do you want? Just tell me what you want and I will prove to you that I can pull it off for you. If I haven't already with Alicia Caldwell."
Selina has to move, so she begins to pace, listening to the tap of her heels against the dusty wood floor. Her eyes catch to the tiny things that make this place a home, the dirty dishes in the sink, the brown bathroom towels on the crowded counter-top, rolls of half-used paper towels. A laptop. A refrigerator with pictures drawn by a child, stuck to the metal with Gotham Knights magnets.
It's weirdly human for someone who doesn't seem to be.
"I want Wayne," Stray says quietly, but firmly behind her.
Selina taps her clawed finger against her side.
"You wanna retry the failed mission?" Blackmail asks after a pause, with a hint of amusement steady in his voice.
Or maybe he sounds impressed.
"Yes," Tim replies. "You take down the brightest and best of Gotham's enemies, you can take down the rest. They'll be susceptible and you'll inspire hope in the rest of us."
Selina turns around and studies Blackmail, watches the gears in his head turning over as he looks down on the ground, swirls the wine in his own glass. He nods slowly, chews the inside of his mouth, pinches his chin in thought.
"Okay," he murmurs. "Okay. That sounds good. You've thought about this."
"Hell yes," Tim responds, folding his arms over his chest, his voice dark and low. "Caldwell did ten times more for us than he has in ten years. His time is over."
Innocence mixed with anger, victim and survivor at once, Stray looks long and hard at Blackmail, as if he expect the plot to be twisted and thickened by his detail-obsessed mind.
Blackmail smiles, and his gloved fingers reach out to stroke down Stray's white face, and he whispers, "I've known someone like you. The ache, the desperation...it's what drove him. He was never avenged." Those unseemly eyes fill with memories, grief. Wrath.
"Allow me to avenge you."
He looks up at Selina, a question in his expression.
"Yeah," she whispers. "Let's take him."
Blackmail nods, "Then meet me up again tomorrow night, same time, same place. I'll have a plot made out for you." He looks back at Tim. "You'll be ready?"
Tim looks down at the untouched wine, glass still clutched in his hand. "Yeah," he says slow and thoughtful. "Yeah, I'll be ready."
And with that, Tim takes the wine down in one swallow and places the glass on the table. Selina stares as he glances back up at Blackmail and says softly, "Thank you."
He opens the door and walks out alone, Selina hesitant to follow, dying to say something, to threaten him, to dare him to take a step closer to her Stray. But the words can't form on her mouth, she can only go forward and follow the teen into the dark.
"You're lucky to have him," Blackmail whispers as she barely passes the threshold.
She looks back at him, focuses on those eyes. Odd; she can't find the malice she was looking for.
"I know," she replies and listens to the sound of Stray climbing down the balcony. "I know."
Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon, I've already started work on it. If you could, please leave a review! I love to know what you guys think. :)