conflict and compromise / barbara gordon

serene reflections

The warm night air brushed against her uniform, and Barbara was beginning to regret letting a jacket be part of her outfit. The summer heat had finally set in and she was thanking god that she didn't have a uniform like Cassandra's. As she swung further away from Burnside Bridge she saw movement on an all too familiar rooftop, sighing as she redirected her grappling hook, she extended her cape and began the glide towards the rooftop where she first met Felina. 

With a whoosh she landed, black boots making contact with a familiar surface, with a familiar figure turning a familiar hard drive in their hand.

"Felina," she called at the catlike girl's back.

"Felina? Who's that? You haven't been unfaithful to me have you?" and Barbara almost blushed, she'd forgotten that technically the girl still didn't have a name, having merely been assigned an assumed name in all her files.

She swallowed thickly, "Felina is the name we- that you were assigned when you became a threat." 

"Ah," Felina settled down on the same wall Barbara had found her leaning on initially, "And why are you interrupting my alone time?" 

"Just checking you weren't up to something," Barbara took a casual and light tone now, maybe it was Wenlock's influence or maybe just the feeling of being in a truce, but she felt no malice in the girl's tone, "So why are you here?"

"Cleaning up old scenes," she was handed the hard drive, "empty now, and broken, held the rest of the blackmail if you forced me to release it that night." 

"And you left it on this rooftop for that long?"

There was a filtered robotic hum, "Was busy," Felina slid down to lying against the wall, patting the floor beside her, "Sit, we look stupid standing and staring at each other." 

Barbara sighed internally and reluctantly sat down next to her, distinctly aware of how the square shoulders her cape created made her look more than a little silly next to the casually dressed Felina. 

Clearing the awkward silence with a cough she tried to make somewhat casual talk, attempting to get any information she could out of the other woman, "Those gloves, old government research?" 

"For Livewire, meant to amplify her powers and give her some sort of melee advantage, but you would have read that in the file I assume," Barbara frowned, this girl really wasn't giving her anything.

"What about you?" The slimmer girl leaned her helmeted head back, "a question for a question, why the new halloween costume? I liked seeing your eyes, prefer the black lipstick though, looks nice." 

Barbara knew the girl was trying to make her a little uncomfortable, mentioning her features and reminding her that her identity was known. But she couldn't help the warm feeling in her stomach whenever Felina gave her a compliment.

"Casual didn't quite fit after I left Burnside, Batman helped in creating something more... in theme."

"Don't mind the theme I guess. Though, have any criminals told you tonight that you look like a mess?" Barbara became distinctly aware of the metal hand reaching for her face, reaching out to catch it without looking at it.

"Don't."

"Just cleaning you up," Felina murmured, "Surely my Bat could release suspicious for a moment."

And so that's how Batgirl found herself underneath her enemy Felina, as clawed metal fingers  took leaves out of her hair, brushed dirt out of her face and fixed her lipstick. Finally, the helmeted girl stepped back, off Barbara, and slumped back down, "Well I suppose I owe you a question or two." 

Barbara paused, thinking for a second, before the most obvious question came to her, "Why."

"Why what?" 

"Why blackmail us, why all of this, for your own twisted sense of justice?"

"Aren't both of our senses of justice twisted?" Felina replied, almost annoyingly calmly, "Child soldier, deciding from a young age who she'll maim and disable," then, gesturing at herself, "Civilian, deciding for herself what's morally correct and what's not."

"We do what is right," Barbara said vehemently. 

"What you think is right," Felina hummed, "Privacy doesn't exist in your eyes, you don't get approval from any government power, you and your friends go out and destroy whatever you don't like. And the only reason you've been allowed to continue is through money, so much Wayne money." 

Felina paused, tilting her head, "Sorry, I suppose I got too into the conversation," standing up, she offered a hand, which Barbara took. Stretching, she turned back to Barbara, "I suppose it doesn't matter in the end, all us broken people, fighting for a dream which we don't even understand."

Barbara stayed silent, processing her words.

"Though I suppose I should repay you for taking up your time," from a pocket in those light trousers Felina produced a USB stick, "Predicted robbery spots I built up from public reports, supplied by some private friends of mine." 

Barbara took the stick, sliding it into a jacket pocket, "Thank you," pulling out her grappling hook she took a last glance at Felina.

"I'll see you later." 

"Oh, of course." 

And so Batgirl jumped back into the night, her relationship with Felina even more complicated than before.