Authors note: References are made here to Cassandra's last on panel appearance, a one-panel flash back in Batgirl v3 #6 where she told Steph not to follow her for her own good and was apparenty about to board "Euro-airlines". This is what Steph is referring to at , since she assumes Cass is in Europe and wants her out of her hair.

Thanks soooo much to my beta, bluejaybirdie on LJ, who is super thorough and awesome!

Chapter Two: Reunion

"Uh, Cass? I'm glad to see you too, been worried about you and all, but would you mind getting off me?"

Cassandra did not comply, but merely continued to stare at Steph like she was some sort of alien-and not the good kind.

"Cass, you're hurting me," Steph said through gritted teeth, trying to jerk her wrists free from where Cass had them pinned. Cass suddenly let go like she had been shocked, scrambling off Steph like a scared monkey.

"How…" she whispered softly as Steph sat up, rubbing her wrists.

"Believe me, I don't know how I got here either. I thought I was caught in a time warp, but here I got an express ticket to Cassandra's Abode of European Sulkitude somehow. Now, I'm not supposed to be here for my "own good" or whatever, but I didn't exactly have a choice in the matt- wait a second..."

Steph squinted at her friend, who was still pale and gaping. She looked…different somehow from the last time she'd seen her. Not physically, but there was something old and comforting about her…like she was simpler…less haunted…more herself, if that made sense. The way she held herself, the way she moved, the look in her eyes…even in shock, she seemed more confident, less beaten down than the last time they had met. Had she simply changed? But the look was familiar, not something new…

"How… are you alive?" Cassandra breathed, apparently having not taken in a word Steph had just said.

And it clicked. Steph had traveled back in time…. But not far. She was meeting a Cassandra of the past, a Cassandra who thought she was dead.

"This is just unreal," Steph moaned.

"I don't understand," Cassandra said. She was trembling all over now, her face blank and lost. Steph had never seen her so undone.

Steph rubbed her aching head, thinking hard. The number one rule of time travel she had learned from all those bad sci-fi movies Tim claimed he didn't like but always ended up convincing her to take him to see anyway was that when you time traveled, you couldn't reveal anything about the future or it would mess things up.

Of course, Babs had always said the rules of time travel just plain contradicted themselves. It was part of the fun.

Well, she'd apparently already revealed something about the future to Cassandra just by showing up alive. She'd have to provide some answers… but not too many.

"Cass, listen, this is going to sound unbelievable. But, uh, I think I'm from the future. I got mixed up with some time traveling villain and ended up traveling back to well, now, I guess. I don't know why I ended up with you…probably because the villain was targeting Batgirl…he just got the wrong one. Yes, I'm alive, but it's a long story and we shouldn't get into it or I'll reveal too much about the future and that's a rule or something. Believe me, I'm as freaked as you are. Well, maybe a little less freaked…"

She trailed off nervously. Cassandra was still standing there like a particularly put upon statue. Steph waited for her to do something. She was considering possibly waving her hand in front of
Cass's face to awaken her when she suddenly realized Cass wasn't in front of her anymore. With this revelation came the sensation on being hit with a tackle from a four hundred pound linebacker, but instead it was a 90 pound woman throwing her arms around her.

Steph wondered if with her childhood, Cassandra had never gotten the hang of the fact that not all touch was meant to cause pain. She certainly hadn't gotten the hang of hugging. Steph wasn't entirely sure whether she'd lost consciousness or if Cassandra just released her rather quickly, but either way she was soon facing her sheepish friend with the feeling she had been run over by a bulldozer.

"You're alive," Cass said again, this time with a cheerful certainty.

"Despite your best efforts to strangle me, yeah," Steph replied weakly. "Uh, any of that time travel stuff put you off in the least?"

Cass shrugged. "Got questions." Her brow suddenly creased in concern and she pointed at Steph's face. "You're hurt."

"Huh? Oh!" Steph's hand flew up to her bruised nose and bashed up mouth. "S'nothing."

"We should have tea," Cass said decisively, and without asking, she grabbed Steph's arm and began to haul her singlehandedly toward the horizon.

Against her will, Stephanie felt a sort of warmth open up inside her. This was the Cass she remembered. From…before. She followed Cass across the vast field into a tiny little cottage just past the horizon.

The inside of the little abode was clean but bare. There was a bedroll on the floor, a small table, a kitchen and not much else. Steph settled herself at the table as Cassandra extracted a lone kettle from the cabinet and began to boil water for the tea. Stephanie had never seen Cassandra do anything as normal as prepare a drink before, and she found herself watching extra carefully to make sure her friend didn't set anything on fire. When did she even learn how to use a stove?

But it seemed Cass had picked up how to make tea from somewhere, so Steph relaxed and explained her situation with more clarity, still careful not to reveal too much. Cassandra listened intently. When Steph had finished talking, she handed her a hot cup of tea and an ice pack. Steph stared dumbly at the ice for a few seconds before she realized it was for her face. Cass sat down opposite of her. She took a slow sip of her tea, and then she finally asked a question.

"Your costume...?"

"Oh!" Steph had completely forgotten that the costume she now felt so familiar in would be unfamiliar to Cass. "Oh…well, see it's like…"

Understanding dawned on Cassandra's face. "You're…Batgirl."

"…Maybe a little?"

To Steph's complete shock, Cass's face broke into a wide smile. "Good."

"Good?"

"Yeah…. I mean...I'm glad it's… you and not just some…" Cassandra trailed off. "It fits. S'who I'd chose."

There was an awkward silence, and Stephanie found she was slightly flushed. It was true Cass had left her the costume and implied she'd wanted Stephanie to take it…it was just Steph had never understood why. She still didn't. Yet here was a Cass from the past, a Cass who had thought she was dead until two minutes ago, who had last seen her running away from a gang war she herself had caused, who was flat out saying she'd choose her as a successor. She just didn't get it.

"So, am I dead?" Cassandra asked casually.

Steph sputtered in her tea, burning her mouth in the process. "What? Of course not! You're- aw shit, I'm doing that revealing too much about the future thing again." She took a deep calming breath. "No. You're not dead." She looked down at her clasped hands, and she felt like something was blocking her throat when she said the next thing. "You're just…different."'

Cass examined her thoughtfully. "You're sad," she pointed out bluntly.

"Of course I am, I'm lost in time which is very confusing," Steph snapped back, desperate to move the subject away from dangerous future-knowing territory. "Would you mind telling me the date so I can figure out when the hell I am?"

Cass shrugged. "Dunno."

"Offffff course you don't," Steph muttered. She thought hard to herself. Cassandra was out all alone somewhere, not operating as Batgirl, but she hadn't known Steph was alive. That had to mean…

"Cass, did you happen to impale Lady Shiva on a hook recently?"

Cassandra's eyes widened. "I- uh,how did you-?"

"I'm from the future, remember?" Steph responded gently. "How long has it been since that happened?"

"Two….two weeks. Maybe."

Steph rocked her chair back with a sigh. How much more awkward and painful could this get? The Cassandra across from her had no idea of the mind-torture and heartache that was coming her way. She never thought she'd use the word "innocent" to describe Cass about anything besides sex, but in a way the girl across from her was innocent. She wasn't yet broken like the girl who had abandoned her costume on a rooftop.

She couldn't stand this. It was too weird, too wrong.

"Well, okay," Steph said decisively, letting her chair fall back on its front legs with a too-loud thump. "I need to find Time Lapse. With any luck, he landed in this time period too, just in a different location. It's been great seeing you, thanks for tea, try to forget this ever happened, you can now return to your daily ninja brooding."

"Wait!" Cassandra grabbed Stephanie's arm to stop her from getting up, possibly breaking it in the process "You can't…go out there alone."

"Cass, you can't get involved in this. None of this is supposed to even be happening. It's against the rules for you to even know this much!"

Cass gave a truly impressive snort. "Since when…do you… care about rules?"

She had her there.

"Anyway, I'm not getting…uh, involved. You're just… staying here," Cass said, shoving Steph back in her chair to punctuate the statement.

"Cass, this is a guy who wears bright yellow and makes puns about time. Not to mention Barbara busted his doohickey. I can handle him just fine," Steph said in her most confident voice.

"Liar," Cass pointed out automatically.

Dammit, I hate it when she does that. "Fine then, you can come. You can take him down in two seconds flat and I can go home. Do you have your costume around here somewhere?"

Cass turned away "I…can't."

"What?"

" I'm not…" Cass seemed to be struggling even more than usual with her words. "Batgirl…isn't who I, uh, am. I'm just…a runaway girl." Cass's shoulders slumped slightly.

Stephanie felt like someone had lit a fire in her gut.

"Bullshit," she spat. She stood up from her chair, upsetting the table in the process. Cass turned back around, surprised.

"Batgirl is always going to be a part of you. You can't just say it's not. Look, I know the thing with impaling your mom was rough and all, but what you're doing here? It's wrong. You can't just…you can't just decide to disappear on everyone. I know sometimes things hurt so bad…that you think no one will care that you're gone, that they're better off without you…but dropping off the face of the earth just leads to trouble. You don't think there's people who need you? You need to face who you are. All of it. Or else you're going to fall hard, Cass. Take it from me."

The end of her angry outburst was met with a ringing silence. Cass was frozen, her expression blank and unreadable.

"If you want to help on this, I need Batgirl, not Miss Mopey McMoperson. Since Batgirl's not around, I'll go by myself," Steph snapped. She held up a finger as she made for the door "Nerve strike me and I will be so mad."

Much to her surprise, Cassandra did not knock her out before she stepped into the open field, but just watched her leave in contemplative silence.

Stephanie waited until she was out of view of the small cottage to drop to her knees and sigh.

"Way to project, champ," she muttered to herself.

It was just painful to see Cassandra this way. Stephanie didn't think she could stand to be with her very long without wanting to warn her about pain awaiting in her future. Dropping out of everyone's lives and then returning at the worst time was going to be Cass's downfall, and maybe a part of her had been trying to convey that to her friend without actually telling her.

And saying she was just a runaway girl or whatever and not Batgirl…what shit. I mean, Cassandra was Batgirl even if Batgirl wasn't Cassandra. Or something like that. Cass had probably been Batgirl from the moment she was born- before Batman had even come into existence. It was something she could outgrow, but it wasn't something she could ever cast aside, or not be. It was like…

She didn't know why this bothered her so much.

But it was good that Cass wouldn't be involved in this. She doubted even Cass's particular brand of kung fu could stand up to time travel.

Steph pulled herself up from the grass with a sigh, and began to walk again. Cass was right. She had no plan to find Time Lapse and she didn't even know where she was going. But what else could she do?

It took a few minutes more dejected trudging before she grew suspicious that the faint rustling she was hearing was not tall grass moving in the wind.

"Cass?" she asked faintly, but she knew it wasn't her. Cassandra never made noise when she followed someone.

Steph twisted and blocked the oncoming blow just in time. Her arm felt like it had been split in two as she stumbled back a few steps, but she took comfort in the fact she had prevented her skull from being caved in.

Time Lapse flickered into view, sneering as only a villain could. "Glad to see invisibility doesn't faze you. I'd rather you see me kill you anyway. Makes this much more interesting."

"Thanks for saving me the trouble of tracking your time-warped ass down. I love it when my enemies are considerate," Steph said with a smile.

"Of course I found you. I said I wanted to kill all the Batgirls. That includes you, just barely. No offense, but I think you're going to be the easiest out of them."

"You're right," Steph admitted. "So just remember- the girl who kicked your ass was the easiest one."

Figuring she had fulfilled her banter quota for this battle, Steph aimed a kick for his head. He grabbed her ankle before it connected and twisted it around. Only the fact Steph had the presence of mind to twist her body with this motion saved her ankle from breaking. Regardless, she was flung to the ground hard enough to make her head spin.

Okay. High kicks were flashy and fun, which was why she had always been fond of them, but clearly they weren't going to work here. As a time traveler, this guy had hundreds of years of martial arts training under his belt, and he'd managed to bring along enough weapons to blow her mind. But he hadn't grown up having to fight for everything. He hadn't trained under Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance. And he definitely hadn't ever been taught by Cassandra Cain. He had never delivered a baby or looked death in the face. He had never been Robin. And he had definitely, definitely never been Batgirl.

She could do this.

She shot forward on the ground and swept his legs out from under him with her own hooked heel. Now they were on the same level, wrestling in the grass. She bought her knee up as he lunged for her, slamming it into his stomach. It had no effect other than making her knee feel like she had skinned it on concrete. It must be that damn suit, she realized. It still protected him from harm!

He grabbed her hair, slamming her head into the ground. It took a minute for her head to clear from the haze of pain, and when it finally did, the first things she saw was him plunging a knife towards her. She rolled out of the way, but she was still dizzy and disoriented.

He grabbed her around the throat and jerked her up, actually jamming the knife into her open mouth when she gagged. Instinctively, she bit down on it to stop him from piercing her throat. Her eyes teared up as the flat of the blade cut into the roof of her mouth. He pinned her arms down in the confusion. She jerked her head to the side with teeth clenched tight, but he kept such a firm hold on the knife handle that all this got her was a cut on the side of her mouth.

"I could go into certain metaphors here, but I don't want to corrupt your innocence," he whispered in her ear. She responded by slamming her head back into his, which made him finally let go of the weapon and allow her to spit it out. However, he didn't let go of her, and just as quickly as he had dropped his first knife, he flipped another one out of his sleeve into his palm, and this time he pressed the blade against the soft flesh under her chin.

"I have to admire the risk you took there," He hissed, sounding angry now. "You just don't care whether you get stabbed in the throat or not, do you?"

Panicked thoughts clouded Steph's mind, Then for no apparent reason, the cool knife blade jerked away, and the pressure lifted from her arms. She spun around to find her captor was now crumpled five feet away and an apparition in stitches and black leather standing in his place.

"I care," Cass said flatly.

"Batgirl!" Steph squeaked.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine! You put the costume back on!"

Cass shrugged in embarrassment. "You said you wouldn't take…uh, help from Mopey, uh, whatever you said…so, uh, had no choice, really."

"Thanks," Steph said softly. "I'm sorry I-

Cass gave a start and looked over at Time Lapse, who had managed to stumble up, the box on his belt vibrating and the air crackling around him. "Catch me if you can," he sneered.

"What's he-" Cass began to ask, but Steph snarled "You bet I can!" and lunged for the villain. Time Lapse caught her wrist, hard, and pulled her close to him, giving a low contented chuckle as they both began to buzz and bend.

"Stephanie!" Cassandra yelled, leaping forward and grabbing her friend's other arm.

"Cassandra, don't-"

It was too late. All three of them popped out of existence, Stephanie's final cry carried on the wind.

"Gah!"

This time Stephanie landed on her shoulder and not on soft grass, but on a cold, hard sidewalk. She heard a similar thump beside her, but no accompanying cry of pain. She turned her head to see Cassandra lithely springing to her feet, her brown eyes alert and scanning around the area.

"Where'd he-?"

"Time Lapse?" Stephanie groaned, looking around as well. They were in the middle of a sunny city, cars zipping past at the speed of light, towering, faceless buildings hunched together against the skyline. The street smelled of exhaust and fried fish. It took a second for Stephanie to realize this was Gotham's West End. It looked different somehow. But there was definitely no yellow spandex bandit to be seen. "He probably did a runner again. He only has one trip left on that stupid machine before he unravels time- maybe not even that…I wonder why he bought us back to Gotham?"

"Should we get, uh, Oracle?" Cass asked uncertainly as she helped Stephanie up.

"Yeah, let's go find her now," Stephanie agreed, heading in the general direction of the Batcave. But she hadn't gotten two steps before she stopped dead in her tracks. "Uh oh."

"What?" Cassandra asked.

Steph pointed to the battered newspaper dispenser alongside the gun store just ahead of them.

"What?" Cass asked again impatiently.

"Oh, right, you can't read. But don't you recognize the picture?"

A buxom redhead in a bat-cowl grinned up from the newsprint, holding an unconscious crook with her fist cocked just in case he woke up. Stephanie read the headline for her friend. "DOMINOED DAREDOLL DOES IT AGAIN. Cass, it's dated eight years ago."

Cass bit her lip. "I guess, uh, we're not getting Oracle."

"Nope," Steph said, determined now. "We'll have to settle for Batgirl."