The Newest Wayne [COMPLETED]

Chapter 11~ An old friend...or whatever Ethan is

-several years later-
I dropped my bags on the wooden floor of the new apartment I was moving into. I was lucky to be a Wayne, it gave me a head start in certain areas, and since I was pursuing journalism and novel-writing, I'd need it. I slowly took the old photo album out of my bag and opened it, smiling fondly at a photo of myself with Alfred in the library.

I flipped through the pages. Damian and Tim fighting in the dining room, Steph and Cass holding up peace signs, Dick kissing my forehead with his arm around Damian, Alfred and Bruce with Jason uncomfortably sandwiched between them, Barbara and Dick posing together at a fundraiser.

"It's a good thing father had us be roommates." Damian stated, walking in.

"Yeah," I chuckled, "like I couldn't survive on my own."

"Apparently he didn't think so." He teased, strolling into the kitchen and unloading a few of his own belongings.

I walked over to the mirror to adjust myself. I also needed to walk around, my legs were still numb from the long drive. It was a somewhat short distance from one side of Gotham to the other, but the Uber we had taken got mixed up and it took nearly four hours to actually get the location right. It had been a beyond frustrating ride.

I was in a black tank-top and a pair of dark blue jeggings. I had never worn contacts again, not even for deep cover missions. My hair had grown to my shoulders, dangling at my collarbones.

"It feels so recent, when I first met you in that classroom." Damian murmured, voice laced with nostalgia.

"It really does. And now, I'm twenty-two." I shook my head, almost in disbelief. I sighed slowly then went to set aside my uniform.

My alias had changed from Batgirl to Scavenger, a mantle I had created myself. Damian had gone on to become Batman after Bruce retired, though we still hadn't found him a Robin. I pulled something from the photo album, a photo I always treasured. It was the one of me and Alfred on the night of my birthday, I was crying too hard to smile for the camera, Alfred kept his hand in my hair. You could see Dick's finger on the lens of the camera, but it didn't cover enough to blur the picture too badly.

I sighed again as I set it on the coffee table as a reminder to hang it up later. I made my way over to the kitchen table and noticed a post-it note on the wooden surface. "Damian...?" I asked in shock. 

"What is it?" He perked up. 

"Did you do this as some sort of sick joke?" I asked, horrified. 

I stared down at the paper. It was a piece of sketchbook paper. Most of the background was shaded black. The picture itself was beyond disgusting. It showed a pair of eyes, one blue and one brown. The blue one had tears coming from it and the brown one was hanging out of the person's head. The gruesome details made me cringe. I can handle dead bodies, but this was absolutely gross, even for me. 

He yanked the paper from my hands. "What the...?" He trailed off before setting it on the table and heading towards the bedroom. 

I flipped it over to see the name 'Hyena' written in sharpie. Great. A new villain. 

Welcome to Gotham fucking city. 

I resisted the urge to cry, the way I used to when Ethan Smythe would knock me around in the hallway. This wasn't the past, as I reminded myself, this was not only the present, but the future. I had moved on from that and never looked back, never bothered to think about my old self. 

Until now. 

The realization hit me like a speeding train. I had changed so much, without even realizing. I had no time to dwell on it, I hurried after Damian.