Disclaimer

I don't own anything. DC Comics, and anything that it publishes, is not in anyway owned by me. It is all owned by rich, talented people. I'm a nobody. Please don't sue me.

Sore Must Be the Storm

Cassandra moved into the building, caution all but forgotten as she searched for Stephanie. She knew that her friend was in trouble – sometimes it felt like Stephanie was always in trouble. When Cass found her, she was going to see if this time she could get it into her friend's thick head not to run right into danger alone.

She had no trail to follow, and with no idea where her friend could be, she decided to be quick but methodical. Not wanting to take the time to search each floor, she decided to take the staircase, peeking out into each hallway as she went, looking and listening for anything out of place. She was about to go back to the first floor and give it a more thorough search when she hit the top, only to stop at what she saw. Or rather, didn't see, as the lights were out on the top floor.

Cocking her head to one side, she closed her eyes, focusing on her hearing. She jumped as, in the distance, she heard a feeble, hoarse scream. Before she even knew what was happening she was already running on silent feet down the hallway, heading toward the sound.

Her desperate rush through the dark proved her undoing, however, as she hit an invisible line on the ground. She stumbled slightly, but before she could recover she took a lungful of gas emitted by the trap. Shaking her head, she desperately tried to fight off the effects as her heart tried to pound its way out of her chest.

Cass heard something behind her and she spun, her fist lashing out. Blood splattered into her face, and laying on the floor before her was Stephanie, broken and bleeding. Cassandra collapsed next to her unable to breath as she stared at the dying woman.

Stephanie tried to smile through bloody teeth. "It's okay," she mumbled. "I know you didn't mean to. I'd probably have died anyway."

Cassandra tried to reach for her, but stopped when she saw her hands. They were red with blood. She had killed Stephanie. She wanted to scream, but her body, not used to making such sounds, instead reacted in the way that it was used to when she was emotionally overwhelmed. She jumped to her feet, her fists up to fight, even as he mind reeled.

"You were a failure," Batman said. Cassandra spun around to face him, her face slack with fear. "You killed a man when you were a child. Did you really think you could make up for that by being such a substandard Batgirl? And now you've killed... again."

Cassandra wanted to deny it, but words didn't come... wouldn't come. She couldn't remember how to speak to even try and refute the charges. Not that she really could – she knew that he was right.

"You shouldn't have left," David Cain said. Cassandra spun to face him, towering over her as he always did when giving her a lesson. "You're the child of a killer. You were raised to be a killer. You are a killer. Why run from the truth? It's all you'll ever be."

Cassandra shook her head, trembling and terrified. She didn't want it to be true... but it was. She tried to hold up her hand to ward off her father, but stopped when she saw them. Her hands were still dripping with blood... Stephanie's blood.

"Cass... I just want you to know," Stephanie wheezed from the ground. "You're my best friend, but I couldn't love you. No one could love a monster."

Finally, Cassandra found it. For the first time in her life, she let out a scream of primal, wordless terror. The sound echoed through the halls of the prison as Cass collapsed to her knees next to her dying friend.

Stephanie was in the closet again. Peering through a crack in the door, she gazed out at her mother and father as they had another argument. "Look, I've got a job to get to," Arthur Brown said. "Just take care of her."

"That's why I need the money," Crystal Brown said desperately. "If I'm going to watch her, I need my pills."

"Fine," Arthur snorted. "Take the money. Just make sure she stays away from me."

"Alright," Crystal agreed, holding the money he had thrown at her desperately. "She won't bother you at all."

"They don't want you," a voice crooned in her ear. "Your own parents never wanted you. Who would?"

Slowly the scene before her twisted and distorted until she saw a young man walking away from her though the crack in the door. She knew who he was, even without seeing his face or having thought about him in years. With a trembling hand she reached down and touched her pregnant belly.

"He didn't even stick around long enough to learn that you were pregnant," the voice said. "He never cared about you at all. He used you."

Her stomach deflated like a balloon, and a nurse walked by the crack with a squalling infant in her arms. Stephanie choked back tears for a moment. Even through them she could see the child she had never named being carried away.

"Your baby didn't just reject you... it never even knew you," the voice said. "Not that it would have made a difference. It will grow up hating you for never loving it... but it would have hated you if you had kept it. It would have always hated you."

"No," she whispered, her voice strangely hoarse. "Better..."

"It doesn't matter," the voice said. "You gave the baby up to give it the life it deserves... and it still hates you. That is what you deserve. It's all you've ever gotten, isn't it?"

"No," Stephanie whispered. "Not all..."

"Oh," the voice whispered in her ear. "Who hasn't rejected you?"

Through the tiny crack, she watched Tim, her supposed boyfriend, kissing a girl at his school. She had thought that they had finally started working things out, but he had apparently been cheating on her. It was just one more secret he had kept from her, one more fact about him that she would never have known if Batman hadn't finally told her his identity. No wonder he was angry, she thought bitterly, when only Tim knew who she was he could control their relationship.

Then there was Batman. He loomed over her even inside of her tiny closet, his black form glaring down with nothing but contempt. She didn't need to hear the words again, drowning them out with her own hoarse screams as he fired her. Everything she had done, and he had rejected her utterly.

"Just like everyone else," the voice whispered. "You aren't enough for anyone. Not a hero. Not a lover. Not a mother or a daughter. You're worth nothing to anyone."

"Cass..." Stephanie croaked out.

Suddenly Cassandra was standing in front of the crack, and even through her Silent mask she could see the contempt. "Reckless... get self killed."

Stephanie began to cry, a quiet, pathetic sound, made even worse by the mocking laughter of the voice. Cass was right, she decided. "I am reckless," she whispered.

"Yes," the voice said. "You always charge in, never worrying about the consequences. If people like Batman, the real Robin, and Cass hadn't always been there to save you, you would have died a hundred times over."

"Yes," she said. "I am... I treat this like a... a game. They all take it so seriously. It means... everything to them, and they do everything they can for it. They train all the time, and study hard, and take every precaution, just to make sure they do it right..."

"Yes," the voice answered. "They don't need you. Why do you think they always push you away? They know this is just the passing fancy of a bored adrenaline junkie, having some fun while people suffer because of your mistakes."

"No!" Stephanie cried suddenly, her voice stronger. "I was wrong... this isn't a game. But... I have worked. I've worked hard. And I do care! I started out just trying to stop my dad. But now... now, I do this because I want to help. I can help. I've saved lives... and I want to keep saving lives. I want to make people... hope. I want, when I die, for the world to have been a little better than when I was born into it. I want to have done something good with my life!"

Stephanie stared up at Cassandra, ignoring the voice whispering in her ear. "I can do better... I want to do better. I know you've been trying to show me, to teach me, how to be a better hero. And I know I can be. I'm sorry it took me this long to figure that out. Maybe I'll even forgive Batman someday."

She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before looking at Cassandra again. "But I know... you won't reject me. Even if you should. That's why I pushed you away before. Why I went out with that jerk when I knew how you felt about me... how I feel about you. 'Cause I was afraid, if we got together, that you would see whatever it is that's wrong with me that keeps driving people away."

Stephanie's voice grew stronger, and with it the tiny voice whispering in her ear grew fainter and fainter. "But you won't. I'm afraid... I'm not good enough. For anyone. That I'm not someone that can be loved. But all I did was hurt us both... I'm sorry. And when I see the real you... when I see her, I'll let her know I love her. Because we both deserve it."

Slowly the closet wavered and faded away, Cassandra disappearing with it. Shaking her head, the blurry world resolved into a tiny concrete utility room, with her hands cuffed to a pipe behind her. Looking around the dim area, she barely kept herself from flinching at half seen shapes in the dark. As the memories came flooding back, she bit her lip as she realized that she was still suffering from Fear Toxin exposure.

Once she calmed enough to make sure that she was alone, she began to work on the handcuffs. Unfortunately, they were high quality, heavy duty police issue cuffs, and her hands were bound tightly enough and at an awkward enough angle to have made them slightly numb, making it difficult to make any progress. She had just managed to get one of her hidden picks into the lock when she heard a terrible, bloodcurdling scream.

Stephanie jumped, accidentally dropping the pick as she did. "Great," she rasped, her throat burning from too much screaming. "How much can I screw this up?"

As the scream continued, she frowned, the voice slightly familiar although she couldn't quite place it. Suddenly, perhaps aided by the Fear Gas, she realized the terrible truth. She hadn't recognized the scream because she had never heard Cassandra scream before. "Cass," she said, panic starting to rise.

Taking a deep breath, she stopped her futile struggles and closed her eyes. Cass needed her, and she couldn't let herself screw up, not again. As the screams grew more and more tormented, she clenched her teeth and did what she had to do. After a moment to steel herself, Stephanie broke her own thumb.

Everything was fuzzy for a few moments, but a fresh scream of terror pulled Stephanie back to full consciousness, and with an agonized whimper she extracted her left hand from the cuffs, bringing her right in front of herself as well. She stood and rejected the urge to simply rush out and attack, instead taking a moment to stretch and get feeling back in her limbs. Being reckless wouldn't save Cassandra.

Finally, feeling as ready as she was ever going to be with a broken thumb and exposed to Fear Toxin, she slipped out the door and took in the situation. Cassandra was screaming as she knelt on the ground, staring down at her hands and shaking uncontrollably. Scarecrow loomed over her, watching the display with curiosity.

Stephanie moved up behind him quietly, launching a powerful roundhouse kick at his back when she was close enough. Unfortunately, despite having given no sign of it, Scarecrow had apparently noticed her arrival as he twisted away from the attack, pirouetting gracefully to face her. "We weren't done having fun yet, little girl. I'm not through with our game."

"This isn't a game," Stephanie said firmly, ignoring the way that Scarecrow seemed to stretch as high as the ceiling, his claw-like fingers stretching toward her as the Fear Toxin continued playing tricks on her perceptions. "I won't let you hurt her."

"Let?" he chuckled darkly. "The only thing you have any control over his how loudly you scream... and you've already shown no restraint in that regard."

Stephanie slowly moved between Scarecrow and her intermittently screaming friend, refusing to be baited. After a moment he drifted closer, lashing out with his deceptively long legs, catching her on the shoulder despite her attempt to dodge. She closed in, swinging a punch with her healthy fist which he easily avoided, spinning away and kicking out at her at the same time.

Stephanie was soon frustrated by Scarecrow's surprising skill, especially hindered as she was by the drug still flowing through her veins. She managed to land a few light hits, but nothing of substance, and she was swiftly turning into one giant bruise. Even worse, Cassandra's screams were growing more and more desperate, and she began to worry about her friend's mental state.

"Silent!" she called over her shoulder as she fought. "Silent! Wake up, please!"

"Leave her alone," Scarecrow growled, slamming a kick into her that she barely managed to block. "She isn't through with the experiment. Until I see how she handles normal Fear Gas, I can't employ my new formula."

Stephanie glanced back at her friend, her fear rising again as she saw that Cass was completely unresponsive. "Silent!"

Scarecrow growled, kicking at her again, but this time she was ready. She dodged the attack, moving forward and swinging a powerful punch at him. He caught her hand, however, and leaned over her, leering cruelly. Before he could react she landed her first good hit of the fight, slamming her other hand directly into his eye.

A scream broke her lips as she stumbled back, nearly throwing up from the sudden terrible pain punching with her broken thumb had caused. Scarecrow shouted in pain as well, but he recovered faster and was on her in a second. A powerful thrust kick to her stomach knocked the air from her lungs and she collapsed against the far wall, unable to do anything but raise her arms to protect her head as he attacked her viciously.

"Cass!" Stephanie shouted. "Please, wake up! Cass! I need you!"

Cassandra stared down at the dead body of the woman she loved, her best friend, her partner... Stephanie. The blood on her hands would never come off, she was sure. She was afraid to look up, terrified of what she would find. She knew she was a murderer, and if she saw whoever had cuased this to happen, she was terrified about what she would do.

She heard some noises all around her, but they didn't matter. Nothing seemed to matter. Just the fear pounding through her veins, and sickening, crushing guilt of killing the person that mattered most to her.

"Cass!" she heard Stephanie scream. "Please, wake up! Cass! I need you!"

The words pierced through the fog filling Cassandra's head as she stared at the body of her friend. The friend who was now screaming for her help. Wake up? she wondered. Am I asleep?

Slowly Cassandra blinked and shook her head, the body disappearing and taking the blood on her hands with it. Looking up, she saw Stephanie being pummeled by Scarecrow. But was it real? Was it simply her nightmare playing out, all over again?

"Please..." Stephanie grunted as she struggled to block another hit. "Cass..."

It didn't matter. Dream or real, Stephanie needed her, and Cassandra would always help her. Without pausing to consider, she jumped to her feet, tackling Scarecrow mid-kick and pulling him to the ground. Sitting astride his chest she punched his face, the face of the man that had drugged her and hurt Stephanie.

Suddenly all of the fear transformed into rage, and Cassandra could see nothing but red as she began to punch. She swung her fists down again and again, venting all of the fear that had caused her to scream in terror moments ago onto the body of the man responsible for everything. She was pulled from her fugue state only by the hot splash of blood on her face.

Staring down at her hands, she saw that they were red with blood, and that Scarecrow wasn't breathing. She had killed him. She was a murderer...

"No!" Cassandra screamed, scrambling backwards, staring at her bloody hands. She had done it again, she was a killer, just like her father...

"Cass," Stephanie's voice wheezed. "It's alright."

"No," Cassandra moaned, tears slowly dripping down her face as she struggled to contain defeated sobs. "Killed."

"You didn't," Stephanie soothed, slowly wrapping a warm arm around Cass' shaking shoulders. "He's alive. I checked. I promise, Cass, it's just the gas making you think you killed him. He's gonna be spending weeks in the hospital, but he's alive. He's alive, Cass."

"Really?" Cass asked, her choked voice sounding like a child desperately wanting to believe.

"Really," Stephanie confirmed gently. "Just let it out, Cass. Just let it all out."

With those words Cassandra collapsed against Stephanie, the tears finally coming in quiet, heart-wrenching sobs. She didn't even know why she was crying; she just knew that she needed to, and that Stephanie said that it was okay. It took her a long time to finally calm down and relax, safe from even the fear of the drugs while in her friend's arms.

Commissioner Avery found them still huddled together some time later, an unconscious and bloodily beaten Scarecrow not far away. She approached quietly, handing Stephanie two small vials. "Here. A sealed box of Fear Toxin antidote just appeared on my desk right before we headed out. No idea how it got here so fast, but we saved some for the two of you."

"Thanks," Stephanie said, smiling slightly. She quickly injected both of them with it, the last fearful fogs slowly fading from them.

"Go on home," Avery said. "You two need some rest. We'll finish it from here."

"Thanks, Commish," Stephanie said as she helped her friend up. She kept an arm around Cassandra the entire way out of the prison, past the swarms of policemen and into the night, before reluctantly separating to use their lines to head back home.

An hour later both women were sitting at their kitchen table, having taken showers, patched injuries, and dished up huge plates of Cassandra's brownies. "These are really good," Stephanie said after swallowing a huge mouthful.

"Thanks," Cass said as she picked at her own food.

"Cass... I'm sorry," Stephanie said as she set her fork down.

"Why?" Cassandra asked.

"Lots of reasons," Stephanie said. "You're right about me being reckless. I'm gonna do better from now on, I swear. And... I'm sorry about going on that date with what's his name."

Cassandra shrugged, her attempt at nonchalance being easily seen through by her friend. "Can date who want."

"Good," Stephanie said. "Because I know who I want. I was just scared before, but I realized something today. I'm not going to let being afraid stop me from being happy."

Cassandra stared wide-eyed at her friend, hardly daring to hope that what she was reading in her body language was real. Heart pounding in her chest, Cassandra suddenly realized that she couldn't remember how to say anything. Even if she had been able to, she wouldn't know what to say.

Stephanie could tell that words weren't what was needed just then, as she simply smiled and leaned forward, kissing Cass soundly. It was everything that she had imagined, everything Cassandra's few previous kisses had never been. She could have stayed like that forever, and she was in a warm daze when Stephanie finally pulled back, a satisfied smile on her face.

"I love you," Stephanie said quietly.

Suddenly Cassandra remembered how to speak, and for once she knew exactly what to say. "Love you."