ɢʜᴏꜱᴛꜱ | ᴅ. ɢʀᴀʏꜱᴏɴ

prologue

00. origin

•—✽—✽—✽—•

two years ago — 2016

BLOOD WAS NOT A GOOD LOOK ON A LOT of people, especially if the mere sight of a drop of blood made you want to throw up your breakfast. So, blood splatters on your face would definitely make you pass out. Especially if it was someone else's blood.

However, Paige Montgomery loved the sight of someone else's blood on her hands. Her favorite kind of blood was the blood of those who didn't deserve to be alive. The ones whose victims were failed by the justice system. The ones that walked away scot-free.

Some may call her crazy or possibly psychotic—a sociopath even, if we want to go that far. But she was a survivor and she just wanted to help those that couldn't defend themselves, no matter how far she had to go—usually death.

When she wasn't murdering people, she was at her desk looking over case files at the Detroit Police Department. "Detective Montgomery, meet your new partner..." Looking up from the file she was reading, she locked eyes with the man in front of her. He had to have been new since she had never seen him before, and she never forgot a face. "...Detective Dick Grayson."

"Partner?" Paige asked, looking over the man in front of her with a pointed stare. "I work alone, you know that."

"Really?" the captain asked sarcastically before bringing his gaze over to Dick, "He said the same thing." She rolled her eyes as he began to walk off, not before lowering down so that their faces were at the same level, "Play nice."

"As long as he doesn't piss me off," she whispered through a smile, watching as the captain walked away. "So... Dick?" Paige asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's short for Richard," he sighed.

"I know, I'm just messing with you. Where are you from? I've never seen you around before today."

The question caused his face to harden before he looked around awkwardly, "Gotham."

"No fucking way..." she chuckled. "My parents were from there. They would always talk about how much of a real shit show it was."

"Yeah, it definitely wasn't paradise."

"I never grew up there. I mean I was born there but my parents moved here to Michigan when I was a kid so I don't remember anything," she said, shrugging. After what felt like hours of sitting around it was Paige's favorite part of the day. The part where she got to go home and a) watch television until the asscrack of dawn or b) fuck shit up. Tonight she didn't have much of a strong urge to do either.

Sighing, she locked her files away in her desk before looking over at her new partner as he put his jacket on. "So, Dick... do you like coffee?"

"Are you trying to ask me out?" he asked with an eyebrow raised and a cocky smirk on his face.

Scoffing, she rolled her eyes. "God no, I don't go for guys that look like Roddy St. James from Flushed Away. I'm just being nice. If we're gonna be partners we should at least know a little bit about each other."
Putting her jacket on, she pushed her chair in by the leg with her foot as she pulled her hair out of the newly added item of clothing. "So, coffee?"

✄ ✄ ✄

"You're kidding... a circus?" She laughed before placing her hand in front of her mouth to mask her amusement.

"It's okay, you can laugh," Dick chuckled.

Looking directly at him, Paige studied his face, "So what? You were a little trapeze boy doing flips and shit on bars?"

"Basically, yeah."

"Wow... I mean I can't really talk, I did flips and shit on bars too."

"Really?" he asked, eyeing her skeptically.

Shrugging, she took a sip from her coffee before answering. "Gymnastics for thirteen years."

"Hey, well who would've thought," he smiled.

"Well this has been fun, truly, but it's getting late and we both have to wake up early tomorrow." She watched as Dick nodded before they both left the café, Dick holding the door open as Paige thanked him for being such a gentleman.

Obviously, that wasn't going to be the end of her night since she had gone with Plan B—fuck shit up—as her activity for the rest of the night. She was hidden in plain sight—invisible to the group of men walking over from both sides of the alley.

Not exactly what she wanted to deal with, but once again, she liked the look of the blood of the undeserving on her hands so she didn't care. She made her presence known by reverting into her natural form. She wore an all-black leather suit with an array of throwing knives attached to her thighs, two daggers secured to her back, and the top half of her face was covered with a black mask that went over her eyes. The eyes were whitened out but she was still able to see through it. Her hair had been let loose for the sole purpose of dramatic effect.

She watched as they all stepped back at her sudden appearance. "I only want Fredrick Hill, but if the rest of you get involved I have no problem with that," she smirked maliciously. Her eyes shot over towards one of the men who swung at her first. She bent backward to avoid the punch before springing up and kicking him back.

Grabbing four knives, she threw them, watching as they stabbed four of the men in the eye. It was pretty easy fighting them all off. They were sloppy and untrained. As she was busy fighting off another guy, she saw someone drop down from the corner of her eye.

"Where do you think you're going, huh?" the masked man asked Fredrick Hill, Paige's target for the night. The man stopped in his tracks as he looked in front of him at the signature suit that belonged to Gotham's own Robin before turning around to be met with the masked face that stalked the streets of Detroit most nights.

"Choose wisely," the woman taunted while a smirk danced on her lips. Her fingers were occupied flipping a knife to intimidate the man.

Fredrick decided to underestimate Paige and tried to get through by fighting her. She had stepped out of the way as he went for a punch. Robin used his staff to jab the man in the back before hitting him in the back of the knees, watching him fall to the ground. The woman yawned as Robin brought the metal pole to the man's throat, choking him out from behind. Paige took the opportunity to punch him in the face multiple times before Robin released the chokehold, backing up as he watched the woman finish it off with a side-kick straight to the face.

Her shoes clicked against the pavement as she bent over to look the beaten man in the face. She displayed a look of deep sadness and concern before she chuckled. A look of disgust took over as she jabbed her foot into his throat, pushing and twisting until she heard a crack.

"You are a long ways away from Gotham, Robin," she said as she had gone through the bodies and collected the knives she had thrown earlier.

"I guess I needed a change from things," he said as she walked towards him. More to get past him really since he had been standing in the alley's opening.

"Well, I do work alone, but..." She paused once they were shoulder to shoulder before looking up at his face that was close to hers as her voice was brought to a low whisper, "...I wouldn't mind if you dropped by."

He watched as she continued past him. Making her way out of the alley, her body faded as it became invisible. "That's a first."

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author's note:

some things won't align with the time that takes place in the actual show but it's not much of a big difference.

i hope you've enjoyed so far!
:)