"BARBARA!" Supergirl screamed as the strike left the carcass blackened and smoking. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?"

"I…" The redhead was starring wide-eyed at her monitor. "I killed Poison Ivy."

"WHY?" Kara grabbed her friend by the shoulders. "She won, Barbara! You can't kill the winner!"

"B-b-but…" Oracle stuttered. "She killed Bruce."

"Barbara…" Kara began, but was interrupted by the violent buzzing of the redhead's cellphone. "We're so screwed." She began to pace, her body a bundle of nervous energy. "Why did you let Bruce go in?"

Barbara's voice was shaky. "He was going to save Catwoman."

"WHY DIDN'T HE CALL FOR BACKUP?" Supergirl demanded.

"You think they would have given it to him?!" Barbara's voice rose as well; she'd been shaken from her trance. "You think they'd help him save a villain?!"

"Well, n-no." Kara's expression sunk.

"What did Superman say?" Barbara asked, switching to the offensive stance. "When you talked to him, what did he say?"

Kara stared at her feet. "He said he would re-evaluate after we crowned a winner. The winner that you just killed!"

"Supergirl! Batman, my mentor, hero of Gotham City, founding member of the Justice League, is dead! He's fucking dead, Kara!" There was panic in the former Batgirl's voice. "What was I supposed to do? Poison Ivy lost it! She absolutely lost it, Kara! There's no way we could let her back on the street!"

"So you executed her?" Supergirl was horrified. "That's not what we stand for! We are the Justice League. The rules are, if you win the game, you're granted amnesty. She won, Barbara. She won fair and square. Three times, she won!"

"She killed every person in her life! She wasn't getting better; she was going to get worse!" Barbara argued, her hands shaking as the situation truly began to sink in. The vibrations of the vitriol of billions insistent and deafening as both women tried to ignore the cellphone.

"Oh and who's fault is that?!" Supergirl demanded. "Catwoman didn't need to be there. We know it, they know it, everybody knows it. What the hell is going on, Barbara? Why were there five Gotham villains in the arena? It's always been two from each hero's city!"

"I don't know, OK?!" Barbara pushed herself away from the desk. "Bruce had a plan to end the arena. He said he was sacrificing Harley and Ivy to prove villains were capable of growth."

Supergirl furrowed her brow, trying desperately to understand the logic. "Batman was purposefully riling up the public?"

Oracle nodded. "He said change needed to come from outside. He said they'd only listen to—"

"What have you done?" A commanding female voice sounded from the doorway, stopping Barbara mid-sentence. Diana Prince stood just inside the control room dressed in a pencil skirt and red V-neck T-shirt. Even out of her Wonder Woman uniform, the goddess was intimidating (to say the least). As she walked towards the younger women, Supergirl automatically straightened her posture, nearly standing at attention. Wonder Woman didn't even acknowledge the blonde, her white hot gaze was aimed directly at Oracle. "Why was our winner struck with a bolt of lightning?"

"She…she killed Batman." Barbara breathed.

A look of pain flashed across Diana's face. "Why was he in there?" She asked with less anger to her voice. "Was it…for her?"

Barbara nodded, tears welling up in her eyes as Wonder Woman stared her down. "There was nothing I could do. I designed the arena so that a villain like Livewire couldn't overload the system to help her escape. Once you're in, you're in." She removed her glasses to wipe away the salty liquid that was gathering beneath them. "I didn't think about the lightning until after she…it was too late."

Diana cleared her throat. "You are not to take responsibility for Bruce's actions, Barbara. He broke the established protocol. He aggravated a volatile situation. That is not your fault."

"Why didn't you save him?" Supergirl spoke up from behind the raven-haired goddess.

Wonder Woman sighed like it pained her. "I'm afraid his Poison Ivy was right. Batman entered the arena, he had to face a challenger. He died an honorable death fighting for the woman he loved. I do not fault him for where his loyalty lay. We will need to craft a statement on your behalf for the untimely death of the victor." Wonder Woman changed the subject. "I'm sure many will be frustrated; I know this woman was a bit of a…fan favorite. Get a body-copter out there immediately. Seems you'll need to send three—"

"No." Kara stated firmly.

Diana raised a dark eyebrow at the girl.

"I'll bring Batman back." The blonde continued. "He's a hero. He deserves a hero's burial."

Wonder Woman regarded the girl curiously before nodding to indicate the granting of her permission. "I'm sorry for your loss." She told Barbara. "Hera smiles upon him." She left in an elegant medley of clacking heels.

Barbara began to truly cry then. Mourning the loss of the man who'd seen potential in her. The first person to call her a hero, to give her a chance to change this world for the better. Her second father. Her mentor. Her friend.

Supergirl knelt down and wrapped her arms around the other girl's waist, laying her head on Barbara's lap and providing all the comfort that she could.

"I fucked up." Barbara sniffed. "I could have saved him. I didn't have to kill her."

"It all happened too fast." Kara soothed. "You made a mistake…but you can't take it back. We'll all do what we can to fix it." She raised her head to look up at her friend. "I'm going to bring him home, alright?"

Barbara nodded. "Alright."

Supergirl left and Barbara was all alone with her guilt. A young woman who had already seen so much tragedy, who had already lost more than most might in a lifetime. Batman was gone along with three more pieces of the memory of her former life. As Batgirl, she sprinted across rooftops, outsmarting and outmaneuvering criminals- a purveyor of justice. Now she sat in a chair behind a desk watching those villains- the ones she'd thought of as her own- meet their violent ends. Barbara had watched the demise of the Sirens, falling one by one, each death uniquely heartbreaking. And it was Barbara who'd ended the team for good, officially wiping the Sirens from the face of the earth with a brilliant flash of light.

Oracle morosely pulled herself back to the desk and- as if on autopilot- began the cleaning process she did every year after the arena was over. She opened a file containing the list of this year's selections and went about deleting their files permanently. Barbara took a moment longer with the Sirens.

Harley's face was absolutely black and blue in her mugshot. Dark bruises covering nearly the entirety of her supple skin. Barbara remembered Bruce telling her about that. Joker had beat her to a pulp and left her in an alley to die. Batman stumbled upon her almost by accident, and it was a good thing he did, the night was cold and her leg was broken in two places. Barbara cleared her throat and pressed delete. Goodbye Harleen Quinzel.

Catwoman didn't have a formal mugshot, just blurry photos of her from afar and the occasional security camera screenshot. She truly was the greatest thief Gotham had ever seen. Barbara remembered Catwoman, with all her elegance and grace, coming unmasked to Bat-family traditions. Holiday parties mostly, but how could she forget the odd mornings when she ran into the half-dressed Selina in Bruce's kitchen. "Staying out of trouble?" Babs would ask. "Always." Selina would wink over the brim of her coffee mug. Delete. Goodbye Selina Kyle.

Lastly…Poison Ivy stared up at Barbara with her haunting green eyes…but unlike the others, there was a second attachment in her file. A video. The time stamp said it was taken 6 months ago…that was around the time Ivy entered into the arena. Oracle glanced quickly over her shoulder before pressing play.

The angle and quality of the video told Barbara it was taken by a security camera, this one recording the interior of what looked like a shipping container, one you would find at the docks. It was mostly dark, the moonlight spilling in from the cracked door the only source of illumination. Even so, Barbara could make out a human form- a woman, by the looks of it. There wasn't any audio, but the former Batgirl could tell someone was approaching because the shadowed figure crouched into what seemed to be a 'ready position'. Then there were hands on the door- male hands- pulling it open. Things happened quickly after that. There was a flash of golden light and the male hands harshly shoved another female into the darkened room. The light was emitting from a rope. A lasso, actually, and it wrapped around the other woman and slammed her forward onto the ground. The door was opened wider and the man was now unmistakably Batman, the first woman Wonder Woman, and the second…Ivy?

Barbara couldn't believe she was watching Wonder Woman hogtie Poison Ivy. The redhead struggled and kicked, but her strength alone was no match for Wonder Woman's lasso. Ivy's plant powers were also of little help at the docks since the water was fairly toxic and supported very little plant life.

Ivy was screaming something- anguish evident on her face- but without the volume Oracle couldn't figure it out on her own. So she isolated that portion of the video and ran it through a recognition software that attempted to match the movement of Ivy's lips to a phrase. It only took a few moments for the computer to spit out its guess, but there it was… "If you take me she'll go back to him! He'll kill her! Please!"