The Batcave:
"Four minutes, fifty-five seconds." He just stares at Batgirl, fully dressed waiting for him standing outside the wardrobe, looking at something on the bottom of her right wrist. "I have done the same to my suit as I did with my armor." She shrugs with indifference. "We start at the car; it is different from the one you knew." She turns and heads off towards the parking platform. "Batman cited the need to change the design as the old one was getting outmaneuvered by shorter cars that could weave in and out of traffic more easily. So we have this now, actually the third of its kind. Designed as a military replacement for the Humvee but proved too expensive to mass produce. It has most of the old car's installments and several others, including a detachable bike composed of the two front tires, only the driver has one though. It's got computer aided guidance systems, silent running mode, limited stealth and four mini rockets and a dual fixed auto-cannon, in case we have to blow something out of the way, like barricades. Also it will take a lucky strike from an RPG to blow up this model, after losing the other two to those we got the armor right this time, but it is heavy and Bruce is looking into a way of making it lighter. I have to warn you, some of the features will make the steering wheel pull you forwards into the center to aim easier." She says while pushing a button somewhere and the hatch reclines to show odd the interior, which reminds Nightwing of a jet seat, but for four. "Also it has a boost function that when activated will send you into a ramp-less jump. Got all of that?" She asks, noticing without looking that he was staring at her more than studying the car. "Because I am not going to repeat myself."
"I… ah… Raven, please, I am sure you know your stuff and I will learn all of this. But can we talk about us?" He says while gesturing with his hand between them. "I don't want to waste your time by teaching me all of this if we can't be in the same room." She just stares at him.
"You are going to need all of this if you want a shot at earning back my trust. Know this, Nightwing, you have to work to get back into this and work hard. Have I made myself clear?" She asks sternly with a raised finger, Nightwing just stares at her wide eyed at her, he had seen less intimidating sergeants in movies than what she is managing now and he is not sure if it is just because he knows her beyond the costume, "Knew her." He corrects himself.
"I… Yes Sir!" He says, standing straight.
"Yes Ma'am!" Batgirl snaps.
"Yes Ma'am!" Nightwing repeats.
"Good, now to the bikes."
Somewhere in Gotham:
"If I may be so bold Sir, it appears she has drifted into the 'Sergeant mode' Master Tim commented upon." Alfred notes on the events playing out on the screen he is watching while Bruce is doing his morning pushups, the two keeping an eye on things from a penthouse in Gotham.
"Seems we will get to see it in action this time." Bruce says after looking up shortly.
"Sir may I inquire if it is wise to leave them alone during this time?" Alfred continues after a moment.
"It is also my final test of Raven. She doesn't know we are watching." Bruce replies.
"Do you not trust her after all this time?" Alfred asks with a raised eyebrow, remembering that last two years and what they had all been through together.
"I expect her to pass, but this is a unique opportunity to see if she can make peace with someone who has hurt her deeply in the past." Bruce replies confidently.
"If you have told her would assure that?" Alfred asks as Bruce gets up, receiving a water bottle from him.
"I am also hoping that his presence will mellow her." Bruce says after a mouthful. "She is a good soldier, but you have also noticed she seems to strain herself whenever Diana and I are together."
"Indeed, she seems to be happy for the two of you while it hurts her." Alfred agrees, Diana never seems to notice it and Tim only had a vague suspicion about it, but the two men could see it in her eyes if they looked. It also happened when they attended parties together.
Alfred had politely suggested that she tried to try and move on, saying that she shouldn't let herself be prevented from finding someone. But she had waved him off.
The two continue to watch and discuss the events at Raven has Nightwing jog from platform to platform, , often having them run from the bottom to the top before they stop and another explanation is pointed out. They can see Nightwing cringe somewhat as they tour the prison cells; they guess he expects to wake up inside of one at some point. After the tour is complete, the two have lunch before meeting again in the training cave.
Later that day, the Batcave:
"Sit down Nightwing." Batgirl says as she sits cross-legged in the center. "This is a vital part of our operation I am about to teach you, and you have to get it right since the smallest mistake can be disastrous."
"Ok." He says while sitting down in a similar manner while wondering what it could be. "What is it?"
"Short-range communication." Batgirl replies. "As you know; our equipment is not hackproof and the kids in school are getting better and better and so are the bad guys. Also I am still mute outside of the Cave, so now I am going to teach you what the bad guys in the city call 'bat-speak'."
"A code-language." Nightwing replies getting a nod.
"One you cannot tell others about, for obvious reasons. It has its limitations, but it works. Now a click with your tongue is a number, the times you click is the number you mean…" She begins, patiently teaching him the new language of clicks, whistles, peeps and other sounds, waiting for him to understand the difference of the tones and sharpness of the sounds he is making. They keep at it for several hours before Raven proclaims her satisfaction that she can at least take him out into the field with it, but that they would need to eat, before heading out.
The evening proves to be an equally odd experience for Richard, who is served Raven-made sandwiches before they head into the city. Which provides another new experience for Richard; Raven's driving. While she remains as calm as always, it is a bit a hair raiser for Richard who mentions it is akin to how Cyborg used to drive when he was in a hurry and angry, Raven doesn't reply but instead puts the pedal down as a response, getting Richard to finally put on a seat belt, something he had refused in the cave.
During the night's operation, Richard has to get used to the code-language and having Raven ordering him around, getting a floor and a direction wrong along the way. And finding out that she has a low tolerance for fancy antics or his old snappy one-liners that seems to disrupt what she is used to during operations, but it remains at growls.
Like this they get the drop on two drug smuggling operations, three in-progress burglaries, one attempted rape and five separate muggers. Richard noted during the engagements that Batgirl obviously had a fearsome reputation of some kind since none of them engaged her unless confident about it or forced to, this leaves him with more of them to handle since they regarded him as the easier target.
The whole evening is another eye opener for Richard, Gotham has indeed become a rougher town and more people are armed than before, and show it openly at night. Also he can feel his travels had not been good for his physical shape as he is exhausted when Raven calls it a night at three. Apparently he had made some positive progress with her, since she let him drive the car home. While Richard has some problems getting to grips with the huge machine, Raven seems to nap on the way home, if her silence is anything to go by.
Richard spends part of the night in his bed going through the day's events, how confused he still is about his own progress and how much it scares him that Raven appears to have completely absorbed Bruce's field-personality.
The morning after proceeds as much as the day before with breakfast and a timed changed of clothes, this time only taking two minutes for Richard, since he knows where his costume is. The first new thing he learns today is what she was looking at the day before.
"Many of the controls you used to carry around in the form of keys and remotes have been internalized, using our body heat as power, there is a weak current being generated in our right finger tips, this we use to activate different applications located on our costume." She says showing her lower arm to have faintly glowing timer running there.
"Ok. So what is up for today? Ma'am?" He adds the last part after she remains silent on the question, he can see her smirk behind the mask.
"First of all, you are going to help me do the one other thing I was asked to do during the weekend." She says as she heads down the stairs, quickly followed by him, she remains quiet as the walk, but Richard can almost sense she is in good spirits today. His own spirit is somewhat muddled when they head into the training cave, wondering if she is going to mop the floor with him again or not. He remains in the main cave as she walks out into a back cave he notices for the first time having been opened in his absence, returning with a white straitjacket which she promptly tosses to him.
"Ah?" He asks, as she takes off her gloves.
"It's for me." She says. "One straitjacket, two minutes top's."
"Okay and you do this regularly?" He asks as he folds it out and looks it over.
"Not that one, I have a rotation going so I remember how to do the different types. So are you just going to look at it or are you going to help me into it?" Again he has that sense she is smirking again as she hold out her arms. "What?" She asks as he doesn't move.
He looks up suddenly as if he was somewhere else. "Nothing, I was just reminded how much trouble I had getting out of these things when I began." He says before slipping the jacket onto her.
"Yes, I heard about that, but you got out faster than Tim on your first successful attempt." She notes. "Don't leave slack." She says as he begins tying the knots on her back, he nods without replying, making sure the last six are as tight as they can be. He then moves to her front and guides her arms through the front loop before tying the two sleeves together on her back.
"Ok, I just need a stop watch." He says as he steps back from her and heads over to near the mini fridge, where they used to have one, smiling to himself finding several there. Turning around he finds her staring at him.
"You aren't done." She says. "Ahem." She says looking down herself, Richards eyes follow her down, spotting the strap meant to go between her legs to be secured at the lower back of the jacket so she couldn't just pull it over her head.
"Err… I wasn't going to touch that without permission."
"You have an order, and don't you dare give me a wedgie." She says as she stands with her legs spread.
He hesitates for a second before walking over and mutters an apology as his hand brushes against her tights, he does however get a small wince out of her as he secures it. "Ok ready?"
"Waiting." Raven replies.
"Ok, starting the time in, three, two, one, go!" Richard counts and starts the time, Raven immediately begin squirming her shoulders up and down, at the 7th second she gets hold of both of her arms and lifts her own arms up towards her neck till they both dislocate at the 9th and 11th second. From there she manages to pull and squirm her way out of the sleeves and poke her arms out at the bottom of the jacket before moving them to the back, leaning over backwards to get as much space to work on the friction buckle holding the strap between her legs. She gets two fingers jammed into the buckle with a heave and flips it open before pulling the strap out. From there she pulls the jacket over her head in a matter of seconds, Nightwing's fingers fortunately react without him realizing it and stops the clock without him thinking of it. His mind was too occupied with what he had just seen.
"Time?" Raven asks as she resets her shoulders.
"I… err... 53.2 seconds." He says after a quick consultation, Raven just sighs heavily. "What? That's impressive!" He exclaims.
"My listed personal best with this jacket is 47.6, been too long." She grumbles as she picks up the jacket and takes it with her into the storage room, this time followed by him, finding it stuffed with all manner of straitjackets and other restraints of various complexity and difficulty.
"Ok, I guess escapology has been moved up on the priority list?"
"We can all fight, but people keep finding new ways of keeping us down or locked up. Have a look, since you better know that you will have to train in this too." She says gesturing for him to come inside. "Basically Bruce developed the policy of having a try at every form of restraint we encounter or think of to first of all see if it is possible to break out of or not, and develop a response to them and and backups for those we can't." She explains as he browses the stuff.
"You can break out of all of this?"
"Some of it is impossible to break out of if you have a normal human skeleton, but we don't expect any of those getting employed by the usual Gotham crowd, too complicated or time consuming usually. Some of it however is possible if you break a bone or two." She says as she heads out.
"Ok, is that tested or just a theory?" Nightwing asks as he follows her out.
"Theory, but we have had it tested with computer models. Now we are going to brush up on the 'bat-speak' from yesterday, you will need this." She continues as she walks over to the place Nightwing found the stop watch and pulls out a long piece of blue cloth. "Also it will show how much you can trust me." She says as she walks back to him.
"Ra… Batgirl, I trust you with my life." Nightwing says as she quickly gives him a hard look at the first name, it had been one of the things that had been stressed yesterday during the tour; Raven wasn't here in the Cave or in the costume, only Batgirl and it was important to her to be addressed as such so she didn't suddenly react to her real name while in the field.
"But you didn't trust my abilities or control when were in the Pit two years ago." She counters.
"I… I didn't doubt you, I doubted your… minions."
"Down there those are the same, only one of the upper castes had so far dared disobey my orders and she was dealt with swiftly. I have since learned she was a favorite of Trigon and so was used to having a little more freedom than the rest who are basically automatons after the pecking order is established."
"And they would do anything you asked?" Nightwing asks.
"Yes, and I do mean anything." She says firmly. "The question is now, are you willing to trust me with your life now?"
"I said I did." He says and takes the cloth piece and ties it over his eyes. "And I do." Raven hovers slightly over the ground before floating around him.
"Good because you will need to, I will guide you around the cave by bat speak, make a mistake and it could prove fatal, but I will be there to catch you." She says from behind him, making him turn.
"You will be behind me?" He asks.
"I could be anywhere." He says, letting her voice appear from two sides, one finishing the sentence the other started while she is still behind him. "Are you ready to begin?"
"I am." He confirms, relaxing himself.
Again from the penthouse, Bruce and Alfred watch as Raven leads Richard around the Batcave by nothing but noises, including leading him over the Batmobile where only his natural abilities keep him standing on the uneven vehicle as Raven guides him up by the rear right tire and down the center of the front, avoiding stepping on the two front windows. She remains floating a few centimeters above the ground and at a safe distance so to give Nightwing the impression he is being guided in the dark.
What does worry Alfred for a moment is that she leads him into an unused cave at the bottom where there aren't any camera's but Bruce just stares at the screen, several moments later a flock of disturbed bats exits the cave, a few more moments after, the two follow them out, still going at their own pace.
Raven leads him over one of the platform supports and has him climb it to the top of the platform over them, before he is told to cross the underside of it before climbing up to the next one. Here she has him run from this platform along the walkway and over the crime scene simulator, and finally over to the last platform, with the entrance to the prison block. From here he is lead up to the top platforms before being allowed to see again.
"Well that was fun." Nightwing notes.
"Indeed, especially when you didn't duck when I told you to." She replies.
"Didn't catch it due to the screeching." Nightwing replies, still smirking slightly, even if he didn't like having several bats come close to colliding with his face.
"Just remember it could have been something that could have taken your head off, even if it looks stupid, it's better to act than think about it." Batgirl replies.
"Couldn't hear it." Nightwing shrugs.
"Hmm, lend me your communicator." She says holding out a hand that receives it a moment later, she pulls back her cowl and inserts it into her left ear before putting the cowl back on. "Testing, 'click', 'whistle'." She says while having her communicator activated before taking the cowl off again. "You need to change batteries or it is just worn out, this appears to be the one you left two years ago."
"Right." He says as he gets it back. "So what now?"
"Now we have lunch and after that I have been ordered to indulge you with knowledge of the stuff we have been up to since your departure." She says with a smirk.
"Didn't I spend yesterday reading up on that?" He asks with a little surprise as he takes off his mask.
"Are you really turning down a chance to hear stories you can add to your files? Will wonders never cease?" Raven says sarcastically. "Oh well, I am in the middle of a good book." She shrugs, getting him to widen his eyes as she heads for the wardrobe.
"Wait… I'd love to hear about what you have been going through. And yes, I have questions to some of the stuff I have been reading."
"I knew you would." Raven says.
Later, after lunch;
"WHOA!" Richard exclaims as he turns away as she exits the mansion into the garden, dressed only in a black two piece bikini and a pair of slim sunglasses and her seemingly ever-present bracelets while carrying an inflated air mattress under her arm.
"What? It's lovely weather and I am going to be comfortable if I am going to tell stories." She shrugs at him before walking to the pool.
"But…" He says after her.
"You've seen Starfire in less I hear." Raven counters in an amused tone without stopping. "Coming?"
Richard keeps staring at her back as he follows her, in his white T-shirt and blue shorts, his mind just wondering what kind of person Raven would turn into next time? But a part of his mind could not dodge the observation the she had managed to remain feminine these two years, despite she seems even fitter than he remembered her to be and that she has a lot of scars and bruises on her back.
"I… sorry, I just didn't expect you to appear in that?" He says as she throws the mattress into the pool, Richard covers his face with an arm as she jumps in before crawling onto the mattress and gets comfortable. "You are Raven right?"
"Sure I am." Raven replies without a worry before changing into her demon shape for a few seconds before having her sunglasses float over before putting them on. "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't want to be the person you met in Jump City, not entirely."
"I… am uncertain if that is a bad change?" Richard admits.
"I had my up's but I after I was accepted on Themyscira, I had a bit of an eye opener to what that meant and I really had to take a long hard look at myself and choose, either go on as I was and be scared of what each new day would bring me or actually look forwards to it coming as a new opportunity, I hope you understand why I chose the way I did?"
"I do, I told you that… on your birthday, you have your life ahead of you."
"That you did, I still remember those horrible pancakes I made you all eat." She says with a smile, getting a chuckle out of him.
"They were terrible, but you have improved." He says.
"Thankfully, or I would have starved or died of food poisoning in the Tower." Raven adds.
"So you are really comfortable dressed like that?" He asks after a moment of remembering. "I mean I remember you never dressed in anything other than your cloak back in the day, and were still very stubborn about getting into a dress before I left."
"Had to get used to it and I thought people would think it was ridiculous to stuff a person like me into one, let's just say that having to accompany Diana a lot of diplomatic ventures has changed my perspective. Also I have front now a days."
"As what?" Richard asks while wondering how they were explaining her presence here, hoping it was more dignified than as an aid and possible replacement for Alfred.
"I'll tell you later if my stories don't bore you. Do you need a pair?" She asks tapping her sunglasses, noticing he is squinting in the sunlight that's reflected in his face from the pool water.
"Did you bring a second pair?" He asks.
"No, but they are on the way. So, Richard Grayson, where do you want to begin?" She asks, getting a strange silence out of him for after a few seconds.
"Well first of all I would like to know how you dealt with, the 'incident'?"
"I dealt with you badly, but apparently I have absorbed your stubborn personality. Just so you know, no one outside the Cave knows exactly why you left, and that's because we didn't want it to be more than that. Actually that's not entirely correct, Cyborg found out it was me it had happened to and I had to tell him, and Diana knows, but they promised not to pass it on. Anyways, Cyborg found out after we organized the new Teen Titans, a week and a half after you left, when I could hide the weight loss from most people. But I forced myself on from that, I wouldn't let what happened to me drive me off, so I marched right back into it and here we are. I am still affected by it, but only because you are back, but we are working on getting that removed."
"So no recuperation for you?" He asks.
"Oh I had some, Themyscira celebrated the Feast of Five, where we honor the five goddesses who gave us life, three weeks after the incident and I went by royal order. It may have been an accident, but I did get drunk over there, Themysciran wine is quite powerful."
"You got drunk?"
"Yup, so now I know what it's like when I have to act like I am." Raven shrugs. "Wasn't a first, if you remember?" She asks remembering her first time was because of Lucifer.
"I hope to see what that's like at some point." Richard adds, getting a smirk out of her as well. "So you travelled time as well?"
"Well you did see me in New Orleans. The time travelling incident was interesting, to say the least. There's your glasses." She says pointing behind him, making him turn around, spotting Cerberus with his sunglasses in its mouth running over to him on his short stubby legs.
"They were on my table." Richard says as he retrieves them from the dog, patting it on its head. "Thanks boy." He continues to dip them in the pool to wipe them clean of saliva before putting them on, sitting himself down on the pool edge with his feet in the water.
"He's good at finding things in the house." Raven replies. "Anyways, it was some creep that called himself Timenar, something we found out later on, future time traveler that decided to rob valuables from the past, apparently not a new thing to the League. Now, me, Zatanna, Diana and Shayera were in the training hall for some practice, when this guy arrived…"
Author's Notes: Storytime is up next