"Well, Bruce, you were trained by the best warriors of this planet." The woman spoke. In front of her was Bruce Wayne in a maskless batsuit on the floor. Bluebird and Orphan were left stunned.
She had cut the rope that she had previously claimed unbreakable. Her claim was only further proved by the batman himself being unable to break it, despite his attempt at burning it with the miniature heating elements in his palms, cutting it with the blades attached to both of his forearms and ripping it.
Then she just cuts it as if it were butter.
Bruce Wayne looked around, shocked at the fact that he had not been touched by the blade that had just set him free.
"I was trained by the best warriors of multiple planets. And I'm sure you know that when a warrior is challenged to a duel, to decline such a challenge would be to lose all honour." She slowly walked backward, placing her sword in ready position, resting the blade on her upper arm, facing behind her toward the roof, both hands still firmly planted on the hilt.
"I won't participate in your ridiculous games!" Bruce shouted as he began to stand up.
With a quick strike undetectable to an untrained eye, she smashed the flat pommel of her sword against his forehead. "This isn't a game, Bruce." She took a step back and went into a readied stance; her arms raised to her side with her blade pointing toward Bruce, both hands still firmly planted on the handle.
"I, Phantom Shadowstar, Rin of Foreign Earth, challenge thee, Bruce Wayne, Batman of Local Earth, to a duel to the death, in sacrifice of honour and the title of protector of that party's domain. Interference by accompanying parties of either combatant shall result in maiming or death of the party causing interference. Victory is only attainable if one combatant kills the opposition. Declining this duel shall result in the loss of honour and the death of a coward, and the duel shall be partaken by one of the accompanying parties until all are dead but for one. What say you, Bruce Wayne, Batman of Local Earth?"
"Fine," Bruce said begrudgingly. "I'll play your damn game."
"Batman, this isn't a game!" Bluebird shouted as she approached. "You'll die!"
"Bluebird, enough! Stand down!" He shouted, turning to her as she only continued to come closer. "Harper! Stop this now!" He was furious at her attempt to warn him of a threat he was already fully aware of.
"Bruce, you treat this as a game and—"
The loud screech of a blade flying through the air interrupted BlueBird from her rant. Bluebird stopped in her tracks and looked down at herself.
Her jaw dropped as she stumbled back and fell down into Orphan's arms.
"Cass..." she muttered, barely able to force the word to form. "C-Cass..." she said once more, before slowly going silent.
Orphan looked up at Bruce with pure fury in her eyes. No one could see breaths from Bluebird, her blood slowly drained from her body, and some of her skin began to go cold.
Her eyes rolled back before closing and Orphan began to panic even more.
No responses came from the limp girl, and Orphan soon ripped her mask off, quickly throwing it aside and revealing the face of a young, barely eighteen year old girl.
Orphan held Harper close and cradled her gently, simply murmuring to herself. "Harper..." she repeated over and over again. "Harper..." tears slowly formed in the eyes of Orphan. "Harper..." Orphan held Harper's head close to her chest and hugged her body tightly, never wanting to let go. "Harper..."
"Cassandra—" Bruce attempted to speak.
Orphan interrupted him with muttered, indecipherable words.
She repeated them over and over, louder each time until she was finally looking up at the woman who had slashed her best friend with a katana.
With large tears streaming down her face and her limp best friend laying in her lap, she shouted with intense ferocity.
"KILL HER!"
"Cassandra, I—" Bruce tried to reason, but to no avail.
"KILL HER NOW!"
After a moment of hesitation, Bruce turned to Rin and raised his fists.
A sly smirk rose on her face as she and Bruce slowly circled each other.
Cassandra pulled down her hood and slowly pulled Harper off to the side of the room to sit against a wall.
Cassandra held Harper close to her, placing Harper's head on her chest as she hugged her tightly, never wanting to let go.
Harper's blood covered the majority of her suit and weapons, soon coating some of Cassandra's uniform as well.
With Harper's mask having been removed, Cassandra reexamined her face, as she had done a million times before. She had memorized every detail of Harper's face, but now, now that Harper was dead, if not nearly there, she seemed to be seeing her face for the first time.
Cassandra slowly brushed some of Harper's hair out of the way and slowly ran her hand down her face. Along the way she gently wiped away a spurt of blood that had sprayed onto her face, and attempted not to begin sobbing.
She continued to run her hand down Harper's face and found herself at Harper's nose ring. Cassandra formed a small smile as she played with the ring for a few moments, remembering the first time she had really noticed it.
They were sitting on Harper's couch in her apartment. They sat cross-legged, facing each other. Harper was working on sheets from her school and Cassandra was simply watching, fascinated by Harper.
It was the first time they really had time to sit in peace and quiet since defeating Mother only two and a half months prior.
As Harper focused on textbooks and memorizing details of stuff Cassandra did not understand, Cassandra focused on Harper, memorizing details of her face and her behaviour. She remarked Harper's light blue eyes, and became lost in thought.
She moved slightly closer, and found her attention captured by Harper's nose ring. She reached out and used a single finger to pull on it gently, to see exactly what it was.
Although she didn't look up at Cassandra right away, Harper immediately smiled.
Cassandra scooted even closer and leaned in to get a better look at the piercing, gently playing with it, making sure to try and not hurt Harper, as she knew the nose ring was pierced through her nose.
After a few heartbeats, Harper finally looked up, amused by Cassandra's curiosity.
The smile on her face was permanently ingrained in Cassandra's memory and the sight of the nose ring on her limp friend brought back that memory.
Cassandra soon realized that those memories would never happen again. She would never be able to see Harper's smile ever again, nor would she be able to play with her ear rings as she watched TV, or her nose ring as she studied.
She would never see her bright blue eyes shine the way they did when Harper got excited.
Cassandra would never see her brush her hair out of her face the way she always did when it was wild, nor see Harper's hair fly up as she would huff and puff out of frustration.
Cassandra kept slowly running her hand down Harper's face and finally reached her chin. In this situation, everything Cassandra was seeing and feeling felt new, different.
She remembered all the films she and Harper would watch. The funny films, the scary films, the weird films. They watched all of them. Most of the time in the apartment, but sometimes they would go to the theatre and watch new films on a gigantic screen in a room for over a hundred people.
Cassandra enjoyed watching films with Harper, for many reasons.
It relaxed her, as she knew that all the films were fiction, and she could just not focus on the real world and focus on the events of the films. The movement, the settings, the emotions. She would be immersed in the films and felt deeply connected with some of the people in the films.
Another reason was that she was able to be close to and spend time with someone she felt safe with. Someone she cared about.
Now that person she cared about was bleeding to death in her lap, and remembering all those films, she recounted one thing that a lot of them had in common.
Cassandra focused on Harper's face, thinking of all the wonderful times they had spent together.
Cassandra ran her finger's through Harper's hair one last time.
She leaned in closer, bringing her face merely inches away from Harper's before pausing. She took a moment to reminisce on all the good memories that had together before continuing to lean in further, closing her eyes on the way.
Her lips slowly made contact with Harper's surprisingly soft lips, and after a few moments, Cassandra slowly pulled away and waited.
She stared intently at Harper, desperately waiting for her to wake up. Anticipating the moment where Harper miraculously opened her eyes and Cassandra would be able to stare happily into them once again.
"But..." she muttered. "But..." nothing was happening. "B-but... but the films!" Cassandra panicked and tried kissing Harper once more. "The films!" She shouted, furious, sorrowful and intensely disappointed at the outcome of her decision. She leaned in and gave one more hopeful kiss. "It was supposed to work! Like in the films!"
Nothing.
"Harper..." tears began flowing again, and Cassandra began to sob. "Harper the films!" She hugged and squeezed Harper tightly in her arms. "Harper, the films! It worked in the films..." her voice died off into a quiet sob.
After a few moments of quiet sobs and hugging her beloved friend tightly, Cassandra finally looked up at the battle ensuing above her.
Batman was in the worst shape she had ever seen him in and the woman, named Rin, was still in peak form, seemingly better than she was before.
Cassandra knew she had to do something. She had to fight for her best friend. She had to get back at the woman who took something very special to her.
She had to get revenge, and that was the only thing on Cassandra's mind.
As Cassandra stepped closer to the battle between the Protector of Gotham and a mysterious, supposed inter-dimensional assassin. The Assassin quickly took notice of her approach and quickly sent Bruce off to the side of the room with a swift but extremely powerful kick to the jaw.
"Did you not hear of the terms of the duel, Cassandra Cain?" She demanded, holding her sword down to her side with only one hand. "Any interference shall result in maiming or death."
Cassandra remained stoic, trying to hide her puffy red eyes and streaks of tears with her hood pulled further over her head than usual. Her arms were at her sides with fists clenched tightly, nearly turning her knuckles white under her fingerless gloves.
The assassin in front of her smirked, making only a single remark. "You have a death wish, Cass." Cassandra, with her mouth and chin being the only visible parts of her face, grinned in challenging approval. "So be it." The woman said simply before entering a ready position.
"I, Phantom Shadowstar, Rin of Foreign Earth, hereby recondition the rules of the duel—"
"Dishonourable," Cassandra said, interrupting the assassin at the beginning of her duel speech. "Fight."
"I am no dishonourable fool!" The assassin argued.
"Fight." Cassandra remained firm in her position with her arms at her sides. "Now."
The assassin almost spoke up to argue against Cassandra, but felt it would be of no use. The tone of Cassandra's voice and her choice of words, in the few she used, insisted they fight at that moment.
The assassin spun her sword overhead once, purposely not attempting to strike anything, before making a quick horizontal strike to her right, attempting to slice Cassandra in two.
Instead, Cassandra leapt into the air over the sword, spinning in midair and landing on her feet, facing the assassin who in one swift move, not pausing for even a millisecond, spun her entire body around and attempted to make a straight thrust into Cassandra. Cassandra, sidestepped to the left and jumped over the sword once more, stomach down, and kicking the assassin in the face once with each foot.
She landed to the right of the assassin and waited for her next move, which was to pull back and try a downward stroke toward Cassandra's left shoulder. Once again Cassandra sidestepped, but to the right, allowing the sword to slice into the floor. The last foot in length of the sword was jammed into the floor.
Cassandra spun 180 degrees to the left, putting her back to the assassin and placing her right foot on the middle of the sword itself and making a fast and wide arc with her left foot, connecting her heel to the assassin's face. The assassin stumbled back as Cassandra continued in her swift movement, spinning another 180 degrees to the left and stepping off of the sword.
Cassandra was now on the left side of the assassin.
As the assassin stumbled, she kept a strong grip on the sword, removing it from the floor. However, she did not fall to the ground.
As the assassin regained balance, she realized Cassandra's fighting potential. If she continued to go at her average, Cassandra would win easily.
The assassin needed to bring on her own full potential.
Cassandra saw herself in a winning position. Her opponent had some very visible bruises on her face, a bloody nose, eyebrow, lip and a broken cheekbone.
What came next was a move that Cassandra could not have expected. The assassin did nothing incredibly special but caught Cassandra off guard due to her speed and strength.
The assassin spun with her blade out, barely missing Cassandra as she ducked out of the way. The assassin kept spinning with the blade in the exact same position. As the blade passed Cassandra, who was still leaning back to avoid the sword, she grabbed it out of midair in an attempt to stop it and gain an advantage by disarming the assassin.
Instead of Cassandra gaining an upper hand, the assassin did as she very quickly lunged at Cassandra, slamming her fist down onto her face.
Cassandra fell to the ground hard, slamming against the floor so hard that she heard it groan in protest to the battle even worse than before.
The assassin attempted to stab down into Cassandra with a downward thrust, but barely missed as Cassandra rolled away just in time and attempted to get to her feet. Before she could get up, the assassin punted Cassandra in the head as she was on her hands and knees.
Disoriented, Cassandra tried to focus, but had immense trouble. She looked around and saw the assassin slowly approaching her, her sword slung over her shoulder and being held with only one hand.
Cassandra rolls onto her stomach and begins to crawl away. Just as she thinks she's far enough, the assassin steps on her left ankle, stopping her in her tracks. Cassandra panics and looks around frantically, hoping for something useful that would be within arms reach, but the was nothing. She was right next to Bruce Wayne's desk, but everything was burnt. There was nothing of use.
Except for Harper's mask.
Cassandra stared down the eyes of the mask for a few moments, debating on grabbing it. For a heartbeat she removed her eyes from the mask and looked over at Harper, who hadn't moved at all since Cassandra had been laying with her.
Cassandra grabbed the mask hastily and looked at Harper one more time before slipping it on and adjusting and clipping it so that it fit and wouldn't come off. What Cassandra had not realized before was that the eyes were actually small screens that displayed white on the outside and screens and commands on the inside. Some of the commands that she had seen immediately were for Harper's weapons.
The screens lit up with the word "Scanning" in large bold letters, and a small horizontal beam of light crossed over Cassandra's eyes.
"Welcome, Cassandra." Words were laid across the screens, greeting Cassandra.
Within seconds, a voice recording surprised Cassandra. It was playing through the edges of the mask, quiet enough so that no bystanders could hear but loud enough that Cassandra could hear it clearly.
"Hey, Cass, its Harper. I knew you'd be curious and put this thing on one day. Please be careful with it and please take it off, I'll likely need it soon. Thanks in advance!" The recording was of Harper. Cassandra almost wept at hearing the sound of her best friend's voice one more time.
But she was quickly reminded of the situation at hand.
Her life was in danger and she needed to fight the crazy assassin woman with a katana.
Cassandra slowly stood up with no interruptions, as the woman had actually taken her foot off of Cassandra's ankle, and welcomed the challenge with open arms.
"You're a fool, Cassandra," the woman shouted as she got ready for the battle that was to come. "Just because you wear her mask doesn't mean that you're stronger because of it. Only dumber."