The Oracle Of Gotham / Barbara Gordon

[01]

❛ 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 ❜

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A hand was hanging over the side of a throne, blood dripping down the motionless fingers and onto the floor. Drip, drip, drip. Dead eyes looked onwards, unseeing as fires blazed and screams pierced throughout the night.

Footsteps approached the body and a low chuckle came from the person, growing with every step. He walked up to the throne and bent down looking straight into the corpse's eyes. "I won, Brucie. I won!" Maniacal laughter resounded through the room, laughing, laughing, laughing-

"Aaahhhhhh!" Barbara screamed, bolting straight up out of bed, her heart pounding. Her face was pale in fear and she clutched her covers as if it were her lifeline. The door to her bed chamber slammed open and her father came rushing in, sitting on the edge of her bed and taking her hands into his.

Barbara shut her eyes tightly as a tear fell. "It's alright Barbara. It was just a nightmare, alright? Just a nightmare." He said slowly as if talking to a child.

Barbara shook her head violently, her eyes still shut. "No, no, it wasn't, Dad. It was so real...It was so real."

Jim brushed her copper coloured hair out of her face, now becoming disturbingly used to his daughter's frequent nightmares, sighed heavily but his eyes were fraught with worry. "It was just a nightmare, Barb. That's all it was."

*        *       *

Barbara smoothed down the green and gold fabric skirt of her dress and let out a soft sigh. Her father was inside the throne room, talking to King Bruce about tightening up the castle's defenses and not letting his guard down just because Joker was no more.

It had been a near decade and a half since the two Kings first went to war. Complete polar opposites, sanity versus insanity, the only thing that they could agree on was their hatred for each other.

The King Joker terrorized, murdered and waged war against anyone and everyone all while laughing through it all.

The last anyone had seen the madman was when he murdered Jason Todd; a young boy that King Bruce had taken in and loved as if he were his own son; beating him to death. After the horrifying incident, the Joker simply disappeared.

King Bruce became obsessed with finding his son's murderer but after five long years of searching came up with no leads. Many thought the psychopath dead and eventually King Bruce came to believe it as well.

'What is taking them so long?' Barbara wondered. She tapped her foot against the marble floor impatiently. Out of nowhere two hands came from behind her and covered her eyes. 

"Don't make a sound." A deep, muffled voice ordered. 

Rolling her eyes to the high, ornate ceiling in annoyance, she slapped the hands away. "Not falling for it, Richard." She huffed.

The man laughed cheerfully and Barbara turned around to face him. Richard Grayson, although he insisted on being called 'Dick.' Was the King's ward and Barbara's oldest childhood friend. He was undoubtedly handsome, with mischievous blue eyes and raven black hair that he could never tame. Of course, Barbara would never tell him that, not wanting his head to get bigger than it already was.

"How long have they been in there?" Dick asked, jerking his head towards the throne room door. Barbara gave an easy shrug. "I honestly lost track of time. But I assure you it's been a lot longer than these things usually take. Do you think something's wrong?"

"Nah." Dick waved his hand nonchalantly. "I'm sure it's nothing." 

The two old friends walked off down the hallways that they had played tag in when they were younger. Barbara smiled a bit when she remembered the good times. "Oh, yeah. Before I forget," Dick piped up, breaking the comfortable silence that they were walking in, "I'm training a couple of new knights and I was wondering if you'd come down tomorrow to show them a few techniques." 

Barbara shot him her famous 'Are you serious?' look. "Dick, you know how improper it is for a lady-"

Dick scoffed. "Really, Babs? You are the last person who should be talking about what's improper for a lady."

Barbara laughed. It was true she had never been to the most proper lady, preferring books to embroidery and sword fighting to dancing. She couldn't count the times she would beat up boys who made fun of her hair as a child, tinkered with whatever metals she would find or practiced swords with Dick in the castle's courtyard. Of course, Dick would deny this, but she always beat him in their play-fights.

"Very well. I'll come by tomorrow to help you do your job." Barbara teased, her green eyes dancing.

"'Preciate it, M'lady. Now if you'll excuse me, Sir Wally and I have to do new knight initiating!" Dick shot her a grin and a wink.

"Don't prank them too much! You two scared the last one's half to death!" Barbara called after him as he walked off with a wave.

The redhead rolled her eyes and walked back to the Throne room, making it back just as her father left the room, closing the door behind himself. "Well, that took longer than expected," He apologized. "Sorry for making you wait, Barb."

Barbara gave an easy laugh. "It's alright Dad. I was just talking to Dick. I'm going to come by tomorrow to help him train some new knights."

"You were talking to Prince Richard?" He raised an eyebrow. "I thought he was still off in the army with the Titans Division."

Barbara shook her head. "No, he came back last week. He goes back and forth with them. Not that there's much need for him to be there since there's no immediate threat ever since the Joke-"

Barbara trailed off as she watched two guards drag a man inside the castle to the dungeons as he kicked and yelled that he had done nothing wrong. "What is that about?" Barbara muttered to no one in particular. 

Her father sighed heavily. "He was using magic. Nothing harmful, but magic is magic in Gotham and the law forbids it. Now, we should be heading back home before the sun sets."

Barbara followed him to their horses, deep in thought as the stable boy handed her the reigns and left.

Sam's Note: Not much plot here, I'm just sorta wading in the waters. I promise I'll actually get into the plot in the next chapter!

And you can also look forward to some familiar faces as I'll soon be introducing, Alfred, Stephanie, Cassandra, Leslie and Wally West.