As History Repeats

*Not the best of chapters, but I wanted to get it done and posted before anything else went wrong.*

Chapter 12

"Gabby, you can let go now. I've stopped," Barbara informed her, and yet the blonde's fingers seemed frozen, locked in place in a way that would preserve her life.

"THAT was 'going slow'?" Gabby gasped out as she allowed herself to practically fall off of the bike. She would have landed in a heap, but Barbara had her by the waist as was helping her walk inside Wayne Manor through the Batcave's entrance door.

"Well, I went slow for me. I forget sometimes that I am used to it, and others-"

"Like living," Gabby cut in. Batgirl let out a laugh, which was cut off as soon as the door above them opened and the two masked woman saw Alfred there. He held the door open, and upon closer inspection, Gabby could see that he was holding a first aid kit and a hand-made icepack. Together, Batgirl and Gabby made it to one of couches in the living room, Barbara on the couch itself while Gabby was happy to practically fall to the floor and lean back against her mentor, her legs still not quite solid after their little ride. She took the mask off carefully and as she felt it scrape against the lip, she winced, then put the ice there, even though she knew her arm probably needed it more.

"Alfred, I'll need a comb please," Barbara said softly, and Gabby thought it was an odd request, but when, five minutes later, she felt the comb going through her hair to extract the glass, she was grateful that Barbara had thought of that. The two of them were quiet while both of them worked on getting Gabby back to working order. After running through her hair with the comb, Gabby could feel its frizziness and she'd have to work on it in the morning. Barbara then told Gabby to get onto the couch with her, and Gabby obeyed. Next came the check on her arm, wrapping another icepack to it with an ACE bandage. Gabby felt almost human as the ice did its work and Barbara continued to run the comb through her hair. When the redhead was done, Gabby turned to look at Alfred, who hel something in his hands, as well as the set of keys she had seen him with right before she was sent out as a Bat character to get the components.

"I regret that you got hurt, Miss Gabby. I was sure that she wouldn't be there, but perhaps she was trained a little better than I had assumed, and it had resulted in your injury. I..." Alfred stopped for a second before he spoke again, this time more to Barbara than to the teen. "I suppose you wish to know what it was that Gabby had been sent to retrieve."

"That'd be nice, yes," Barbara said tartly. Gabby nodded, her eyes a little more sympathetic. Or painfilled, she couldn't tell at the moment.

The butler entered the room a little more before he stood before the two caped figures. "About fifteen years ago, before Master Bruce adopted Master Dick and joined with you, Miss Barbara, he had run into many metahumans. At that time, people didn't really know the term metahuman-"

"People don't know the term now," Barbara interrupted, and the butler nodded in agreement.

"There was no way of knowing what to call those like the Joker or Catwoman. He just knew that he needed to protect himself if he were to continue to fight crime in the city. He joined with several strong influences in science and technology in the city and together they worked on what was simply 'The Metahuman Project'. They worked for a couple of years, but many of the prototypes were possibly harmful to metahumans. Master Bruce wanted only to paralyze them temerarily or to find a way to leave him invulnerable to another metahuman's powers, but he didn't want to permently damage another, no matter what their crime. "

"What did the prototypes do? Or what were they s'posed ta do?" Gabby asked.

"We worked on one in particular, but had to start over several times due to them doing something else metahuman related. Each time it did different things, paralyze the metahuman powers, paralyze the effect of the metahuman's powers on another, take or delete the power complete from the metahuman body... in theory, at least. They seemed perfectly acceptable-in theory- but Bruce was afraid to test them should something go wrong, so he locked them away in various Wayne Enterpises building around what was then Gotham City. Seven years ago, after the earthquake, I moved them, should someone happen upion the debres and find them. I had forgotten about them since then."

Gabby shook her head at that part. "SOMEONE had to have been there all that time, Alfred. It was took clean in there, I remember that much. There was no dust, no spiders- nothin'."

"Though a valid argument, Gabby," Barbara cut in, looking at the butler susptiously, "what matters is the fact that someone out there knows about the components and now has one of them. Which one was Gabby sent after, and why was it so life altering that she had to get it right away?"

"The component I sent Gabby to retrieve was meant to sever the metahuman power from the body via a machine that was created by a Dr. Harold Fairgreen Jr., however the one time it had been tested without authorization, it had killed the metahuman. The machine was taken apart, but those components were kept for a later date."

"For when technology caught up with the idea," Barbara said.

"Er- yes. It is also the most dangberous of them all. It is the only one we know for sure that kills. The others weren't tested, and it should stay that way in my opinion." Alfred handed Barbara what was in his hands, more computer parts that the redhead examined. Gabby watched the redhead.

"Alfred?"

"This was the component left here at the Manor, the one that showed the most promise. Master Bruce remembered its placement when a metahuman had broken into the Manor and used it. It seemed to work, but only as a one time use. No matter then; it had saved his life, but I am wondering..."

"If you would let Barbara play with it to see if her mad skills could get it working more than just one time?" Gabby asked.

"Precisely."

"I don't know..." Barbara said. She looked to Gabby. "Who would know about that machine?"

"That doctor guy, obviously, if he's still around," Gabby said.

"I am not sure if he is."

"Then that will be my first task-"

"Whoa, Turbo, your first task is to get yourself looking like you didn't just get into a fight so I can take you home and I don't get murdered by your mother. Then you're staying home the next three days AT LEAST so you can heal, got it? MY first task will be to get the rest of the conponents from wherever Alfred hid them, see what I can do with this doohickey, and keep an eye out for... I don't know. Something."

"Maybe you can recruit the Huntress. She seemed happy to help, and her mother was-is?-a theif-"

"No Huntress," Barbara said firmly, cutting off the teen's words. Gabby fell silent, and Alfred said something about putting keys away and preparing something or other. Gabby couldn't tell if it was moe bandages for her or something tasty to eat. The two crimefighters didn't say anything for a long time. Barbara's eyes met Gabby's inquisitive ones, and said with a scoff, "I got jealous, what do you want me to say?"

"You got... jealous?" Gabby asked slowly. Barbara shook her head.

"I forgot that you weren't Oracle. You didn't hear."

"What did she do that got you jealous?"

"Does it matter? The fact is, she shouldn't have the power to make me feel this way... but she does." Barbara said the last part softly, and Gabby had to guess what she'd said. Gabby frowned in thought.

"Why not?"

"What?"

"Why shouldn't she make you feel all the good tingles? Someone's got to, and you deserve happiness. Why not with someone like her? It would be continuing the legacy of Batman, and I know how much you're all for that," Gabby teased, but Barbara's look to her was hard.

"That's another thing. Her mother is my nemisis."

"But she isn't, is she?"

"Who are you, Oracle or Matchmaker?"

"Right now? Your friend," Gabby replied.

"Nice one," Barbara said as she looked down at the component in her hand.

"Well..." Gabby said, "no one deserves happiness in this city more than you do, and- as your phrase of the night seems to be- the rest doesn't matter."

"I can't- I can't..."

Gabby was worried for her mentor. She had watched her scale buildings, fight bad guys, practically fly on the Batbike, but she had never seen Barbara scared like this before. She didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. It was just as well, as her lip started to throb from the talking. Barbara used a rubber band to tie Gabby's hair back, and the teen switched the ice from her mouth to her shoulder. She still had no clue what she was going to tell her other. She had to hope that now that her mother worked various afternoons and nights at the hospital, she could sneak into her window before her mother got home.

"Come on, I'll take you home," Barbara said suddenly after a long moment of silence, seeing that Gabby was starting to look sleepy.

"I'd rather take my chances with the subway," Gabby responded immediately.

Barbara chuckled. "I'll have Alfred take you in the car, then."

"Deal. Good luck getting the other components. Keep me posted on how it all goes."

"You know I will."