"You look like crap," Holly finally said after what seemed like the appropriate time, leaning against Selina arm as they both huddled together in the control room.

"I've been worse," Kyle replied cynically, smearing patches of dried blood on her gloved knuckles against the wall.

"Worse than Stan?"

"We've been through worse than this," Selina agreed, before offering the girl her left side.

Resting her head against Selina's catsuit, Holly continued to breathe in the tranquil mood for a moment longer before asking the inevitable.

"How'd you find me?"

"Believe it or not, Falcone. He told me about the deal he made with White, and I tracked Blake back here. The other details get blurry, so if you want the full story ask me after I evaluated for concussion," Selina told her, sorely rubbing her forehead.

"You know he used to be some bigshot at the zoo, right? Blake?"

"Yeah, the 'Amazing Catman,'" Selina almost giggled, before almost instantly regretting it a wheeze-filled second later.

"Creep showed up at the club about a week or so ago. Stayed for the usual show, but hung around after we got our tips. Seemed nice enough at first, even offered us a ride. Turned out he wasn't asking," Holly explained, almost shivering as she mentally recalled what happened next.

"He hurt you?"

"Nothing like what you did to him, believe me. Old chloroform routine, y'know? Right in front of My Alibi," she said bitterly, pausing for a moment before continuing. "To save his fat ass Falcone practically gift-wrapped us for delivery. Made sure we weren't damaged goods or whatever."

Making a mental note to pay Falcone another visit before he beefed up security, Selina let the silence caress their physically and mentally drained bodies for another few seconds before attempting to get back up.

Offering her teenaged frame for support, Holly was about to speak again when a sudden blaring sound emanating from outside entered her earwaves.

"Cops," Selina assured her, before limping towards the door. "Late as usual."

"The other girls are outside now. You should be too," she said, slightly wincing with every step even as Holly helped her towards the exit.

"What if they start asking questions besides White and what happened here? Like for example, my current occupation?"

"You know the drill, kid. Just do what we've practiced, and they'll write you off just like the others. If they try to pry, lie about what you can and B.S. through what you can't," she smiled, leaning against the doorframe. "Either way, stay at the precinct and get your strength back. They'll be too busy wanking off to the press about how they got the newest freakshow inmate in lockup with Batman's help anyways."

"You should take it easy too, Selina. At least take the week off or something," Holly reminded the weary woman.

"I'll manage, Holly. Cats always land on their feet, remember?" she winked, before opening the door and starting to make her 'graceful' exit.

"Selina…"

"Holly, I told you to go out-oh!" She was suddenly attacked by a hug from the teenager, thankfully one much more compassionate and tender than the last one.

"Thank you," Holly finally got out, almost breaking down as she clung onto the older woman for dear life.

Combing her head in an almost motherly manner, Selina returned the hug with equal passion.

"I should be saying the same to you," she smiled back, kissing the girl on the forehead before allowing herself just a moment to give in to the frenzy of emotions circulating around both of them.

No more words were spoken as the two women continued to embrace.

None had to be, for their actions told the entire story.


Finally ripping the cowl off her face as she crawled through the fire escape window, Selina Kyle let loose a victorious sigh as she entered into her East End apartment safehouse.

Tossing the now damaged mask aside on a nearby counter, her right hand roamed blindly alongside the wall before finally flickering the light switch on and illuminating darkened space, albeit barely.

A single ceiling light blinked to life, emitting a soft buzzing sound that she had yet to fix.

The apartment itself was a mess of riches, ranging from glass shelves lining the walls that were filled with museum "souvenirs" of past heists to blueprints and floor plans of museums and other facilities scattered along the floor that she had yet to rob.

Peeling away her gloves and slapping them against the plush cushion of the couch in the middle of it all, Selina Kyle sighed to herself as the last adrenaline high that took her back here finally began to wear off.

Gently stepping over a homemade bed for two of her house cats sleepily cuddling against each other, she regarded the confined yet homely living space one last time before making a beeline towards the bathroom to begin tending her battle wounds.

She took a few steps forward, then stopped.

Her eyes narrowed together as she paused mid-stride, somehow sensing that something wasn't right.

"Someone," she corrected herself in the same thought, her hands dropping down to her waist.

Drawing her whip out in a second, she twirled around towards the window about to rear back at the silhouetted intruder.

"Don't know how you found me, but you're about to regr-!" Her words trailed off as she noticed something very peculiar plastered over his chest.

An R.

"You?" she gasped almost quizzically, as the Boy Wonder himself took a step out of the shadows.

Still clad in his armored costume with the hood concealing his facial identity, he stared back at her with a very curious albeit somewhat confrontational look.

Relaxing her stance nevertheless, she cocked one hip out to to the side as Batman's earlier words from the nightclub came back to her.

It somewhat perplexed her as to why his protege would be in Gotham City, in her own slice of Gotham City for that matter but then again when it comes to Batman and his clan nothing should surprise her anymore.

"You know, your father's been looking for you," she told him, crossing her arms as he glared at her stoically. "Now, I don't know if you're trying to explore some new things now that Daddy Bats has let you off the leash or whatever, but in the real world we call this stalking, okay?"

He declined to respond, electing instead to reach for his utility belt.

"Look, if I'm being punked here then the brooding one and I are going to have some words. However, seeing as how he's still on about Arkham City I'm going to assume this is some cry for help. In that case, I may know someone in the area who can help well...whatever's going on here," she continued, gesturing at his suited figure for a moment before continuing.

"She keeps me sane which is saying something in this city, so I'm sure she could work through this...stage you're going through. She has a clinic downtown, but I'm sure I could pull some strings and-"

Cutting her off by fully walking out of the darkened corner, another peculiar feature about Robin caught her eye, ironically enough.

It was his eyes.

They were green. Emerald green.

It then dawned on Selina Kyle exactly why he was here.

"Oh shit," she breathed out, as Robin extended his bo staff with his right hand.

Twirling it around in front of him, the now glowing slits on his domino mask narrowed in concentration as he lunged at her.

Forced to defend herself, she reluctantly cracked the whip at him as he vaulted over the coach.

The split second of hesitation may have cost Kyle, allowing Robin to snake around the lashing blow intended for his midsection and land gracefully in front of her.

Swinging the staff forward, she fell back on her hurt leg to avoid his initial thrust before ducking his second attack that instead knocked over a lamp.

Taking a running step forward as she limped back towards the wall, he drilled the tip of the staff into the ground to launch the rest of his body forward in the same vein of an Olympic pole-vaulter.

Covering the distance between them in a single bound, he caught the feline fatale with a stiff kick to the sternum that knocked her back against one of the glass shelves.

Grunting as she felt the now chipped glass prick the back of her neck, she threw herself to the ground as he dashed forward on the momentum and made a swift stab at her face with the pole.

Rolling along the floor as Robin broke through the glass of the shelf, Selina skidded around the sofa before getting back up.

"I don't want to have to hurt you, kid," she implored desperately, her plea ignored by the rapidly advancing Boy Wonder.

Taking a breath, she begrudgingly brandished the whip against him. "Look, I know how she gets in your head. It seems like the only thing you can do is obey her voice in your head, but you can fight it. Trust me, you can-"

He responded by swinging at her again, her instinctive response immediately being to duck and skirt backwards.

Gritting her teeth together at the daunting task of having to engage the Bat's apprentice one-on-one, she retaliated with a sloppy roundhouse that he easily swatted aside with his right gauntlet before jabbing at her exposed midsection.

Snaking around the metallic pole, she took a few steps backward before rearing back with the whip and cracking it towards his neck.
Planting himself firmly on the ground before leaning forward, he easily caught the whip with both hands working in tandem to grasp the cord.

Intentionally intertwining his twin gauntlets within the whip himself, he then shouldered the rest of the cord along his right shoulder and with a single grunt lifted Selina off her feet.

Heaving towards the ground, Robin used Selina's own weapon as leverage to judo flip her over his cape and slam her back down to the carpet.

Landing with a pained whimper with her whip now firmly in Robin's grasp, Selina rolled to the side as Robin's boot stomped down on the space previously occupied by her chest cavity.

Loudly wheezing as the scars from the previous battle began to open themselves back up, she groggily assumed a boxing stance as Robin tossed the whip aside before rushing forward yet again.

His first jab barely broke through her forearm guard, inflicting a glancing blow to her already bruised ribcage that nearly had the cat burglar doubled over.

Fighting it off albeit barely, she threw a desperate haymaker only for Robin to disappear underneath her armpit and spring back up with a double-handed staff strike to the chin.

Staggering backwards, she shifted sideways and out of sheer instinct attempted a spinning heel kick to stall his momentum.

Easily telegraphing the move, Robin caught her ankle with one ankle and after glancing briefly at her caught leg brought his other elbow down hard on her lacerated thigh wound.

Nearly screaming her already aching guts out, Selina collapsed to the ground in too much pain to even form intelligible thoughts.

She looked up in her near fetal position only to be smacked squarely across the face by Robin's merciless right hand and knocked back down.

Standing over her for a moment before kneeling down, Robin grabbed her by the neck and raised her back into a somewhat standing position.

The barely cognizant Catwoman barely had time to react to the rapidly approaching glass shelf before she was thrown into it courtesy of the enthralled hero.

Crumpling back down as the wooden shelves collapsed all around her beaten body, she struggled even remembering who she was fighting as Robin calmly walked towards her.

Still, even with her world closing in around her she forced her fatigued and battered body back up out of the wreckage.

Responding to pure sound, Selina Kyle willed herself back to a knee with her fingers closing around an antique Egyptian cat statue.

Using the stolen item for support as his footsteps circled around her, she turned on one wobbly leg and with every last ounce of strength she could still muster attempted to smash the item upwards towards the area where she thought his head was.

Anticipating her sluggish counter from the second he spotted her reaching for the statue, he simply caught her wrist in mid-air.

Tightening his grip until the statue dropped harmlessly to the floor, a twitch of what seemed like pity broke through his grimace before he continued to fulfill the task at hand.

Yanking her up as he readied his other arm, he clotheslined her back to the ground with a savage forearm smash to the neck to effectively stun her beyond any hope of recovery.

Sure enough, a glossy look adorned Selina's face following that debilitating blow that nearly took her head off.

Dragging her towards the center of the living area with no resistance from the completely drained woman, Selina could only listen as her dimming vision became clouded by Robin's armored torso kneeling next to her.

Grabbing her by the front of the catsuit, he slung the groggy master thief over his shoulder and after standing back up took another running step forwards before throwing her into the air.

Selina Kyle was unconscious even before she crashed through the decorative coffee table, the backpack she still had on only cushioning the almost superfluous slam into the glass covering.

Sprawled out in a motionless heap against the glassy floor, a single line of blood trailed down Catwoman's lip before her eyes finally rolled over to the back of her head, the last thing Selina could make out being image of the impassive Robin towering above her.

Watching patiently as her body eventually stopped moving voluntarily, Robin retracted his staff before kneeling down to collect her unconscious body.

"She isn't done with you yet."