So I recently wrapped up writing Angel of the Bat III: Da Pacem Domine, the longest singular piece of fiction I've ever written and what I'm pretty sure is going to go down as my fanfic magnum opus. It's my intention to be done with fanfic writing now, but I am writing little post-mortems on my old, unfinished stories. My opus was, after all, an adaptation of an idea that never came to fruition. If anyone else feels inspired by this or any of the other post-mortems I'm going to write, I only ask that you let me know, because I'd love to read whatever you come up with.
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So, When Does it Get Better. The funny thing about this story is I started writing it as therapy to myself after it felt like wounds from a nasty breakup felt like they were opening again. Funny, in this case, because my ex and I ended up reconciling and, eventually, falling back in love. Losing my motivation to keep writing this piece was the smallest of prices to pay for that, but it was a casualty, lol. So that's the why I never finished, I'll get into a little here of what I never finished.
As Barb described to Steph in chapter 3, Stephanie was going to infiltrate Erik Timmons's operation with the other college students. Timmons himself was going to be a bit of a veiled riff on everything I knew about Elon Musk at the time (which was basically nothing, and a far cry from what a son of a bitch I know he is these days.) His company was producing nanomachines both for spying on people in their homes and ones that could be reconfigured into battle armor. While getting to the bottom of this, Steph would run across Erik's son (I don't know if I ever settled on a name for him. Let's call him, "Tony," for reasons that will become apparent in a moment) who was also standing against his father. Tony had his own set of nanomachines and his own armored suit he could configure them into, allowing him to turn into kind of an Iron Man knockoff, who Steph and the Birds of Prey end up allying with.
Despite what she said in chapter 3, Steph does eventually take up the Spoiler identity again (with an upgraded but still decidedly homemade costume) to fight alongside them. At the same time as this, Tony's making romantic advances on Steph that she feels weird about, but is trying to reciprocate.
Eventually, the Birds are found out by Erik Timmons, and Stephanie, Tony, and the team fight a horde of his nanobot creations. Barbara hacks into them a ways into the battle, brings them offline, and the heroes are able to successfully beat Timmons and, thanks to his attack being witnessed in broad daylight, get him arrested. I wanted to do a fakeout for treating that as the end for a little bit.
After that though, we'd get a reveal that the story keeps going. Ever since Erik Timmons's arrest, Tony has been throwing up more and more red flags about how he wants more out of his and Steph's relationship. She keeps rebuffing him and grows increasingly frustrated, but he grows increasingly creepy and entitled about the idea that she "owes him" after he helped take down his father. Barbara eventually intervenes, informs an increasingly stressed, freaked out Steph that she's in an abusive relationship, and cuts the two of them off.
Tony eventually turns back up, nanite suit and all, and physically separates Steph from Barbara so she can't hack his suit. He's now determined to punish Steph for not accepting his advances, and it is indeed this awful, jerkass boyfriend who ends up being the story's final boss. As they fight, he would have listed off some meta commentary right off the worst DC writers' desks about thinking Stephanie never served a purpose back in Gotham, and how she never would have beaten his father if he hadn't done all the hard work. I don't know how Steph with only basic equipment and a scrappy Spoiler costume was going to defeat him, that was always going to be a, "cross that bridge when I come to it," situation, but it would be a happy ending when she finally overcame and shut Tony the hell up.
The last scene would have been the only non-flashback she and Tim shared together, him flying out to Platinum Flats after everything happened and they have coffee together. Steph tells him she appreciates him coming to visit, and it is obvious there is still care there between the two, but she rebuffs him when he asks if she wants to try their relationship again, saying she needs some time to be by herself and isn't totally sure she'll ever feel all right with him again after the cheating the story alluded to. Tim, obviously being flawed and regretful but deciding to do the right thing, accepts this without argument. Stephanie ultimately chose to remain working with the Birds of Prey in Platinum Flats, embracing being the Spoiler again. It's up to the reader's interpretation if she and Tim ever got back together eventually.
Continuity wise, this splintered off from Angel of the Bat, but only in so far as the Angel identity and Sadie were mentioned. This is a separate timeline from how Steph's life shook out in the main Angel continuity.
I think this one could have been something special, but again, I'll take losing my motivation to write it over working through my moping any day, ha ha. Tim and Steph have been broken up in the main continuity for a while now. I've decided I'm all right with that on the grounds they've been teenagers for 30+ friggen years now, writers may as well shuffle them around some. I've come up with two of my own endings for Steph in the long term, and in both of them she ends up happy and fulfilled, with or without Tim. But, given the choice, I'm always rooting for them.
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Again, if anyone wants to use elements of this to tell your own story, I only ask that you let me know. As I said, I'd love to read what someone else comes up with out of my outlines.