For the Love of Nightwing

Final Showdown: Part 2

My breathing was as slow and as steady as I could make it. I still felt like Dick could've been my best friend, and the torment I felt of not being able to have him in my life without conflict was worse than any torture I could've been put through. But I was too prideful to tell him that, and looking back now, I wish I had.

I took my stance and squeezed my fists tightly. It had been a while since the last time Nightwing and I had fought, I was almost nervous that his fighting style had completely changed and I wouldn't be able to keep up.

Then, I thought of Jaime, and all the training Bruce had put me through, everything I had been through, all on my own.

Just as Nightwing went to say something else, I lunged forward and landed a punch so hard on his jaw that the skin on my knuckles ripped and began to bled. His head fling backwards, but I wouldn't give him a chance to cool down. I kicked at the inside of his left knee and he fell to the ground. I snatched a fistful of his ebony hair and forced his head backwards, so that he was forced to look at me.

"You did this," I snarled through gritted teeth. "This is all your fault!" I slammed him forward onto my knee, knocking the wind out of his chest. "If you hadn't left me that night Harley Quinn never would have kidnapped me!"

It seemed as though he had finally found himself, because as I went to knee him in the nose he blocked my leg and pushed it back to the ground. He turned look at me. "I didn't leave you," he said sternly, but softly. "I have never left you."

"You weren't looking too hard, were you?!"

"I thought you were dead!" I pulled his hair and forced him down to the ground. Pinning his arms to the ground and straddling his waist. If he really wanted to he could have forced me off, but he didn't.

"Was a duffel bag with pieces of hair and blood really enough to convince you of that?!" Tears began to rush down my cheeks. "That was my idea! I didn't think you would be dumb enough to fall for it! I thought it would ease the torture if they thought I was on their side!"

He let out a loud, offensive laugh. "On their side? Dolly, we know you were on their side! You probably still are! I know about the phone!" He held his head up slightly, like a pinned animal nipping at someone's face.

I fell backwards, resting on his stomach. "The phone?" I mumbled nervously. "I couldn't even unlock it."

He starred at me for almost an entire minute. "Are... are you serious?" Dick's voice was venomous and low. I nodded slowly, blinking excessively.  "It's a momento to your time with them, Dolly! The passcode was the date you went missing." His voice fell, and he laid his head back on the ground. "It's full of naked pictures of you and other men. There's one with the Joker on top of you and--"

"STOP!" I cried out, falling backward and scrambling off of him.

"I thought you were holding onto those memories."

"If you think those are memories I want to hold onto then I guess you never knew me." I swallowed hard and turned away from him. "But, even when you thought I was conspiring against you..."

Without getting up, Dick answered, "I loved you, Dolls. I always will, no matter what." I heard a loud exhale following his profession.

I closed my eyes and slowly turned back to him. When I opened my eyes I saw him again. Laying on the ground, staring at the ceiling. Blood trickled down the side of his pale face and his hair was a mess. He had held true to his promise- he hadn't raised a hand to me. I was complexly unscathed and he hadn't even tried to defend himself.

"I deserve this," he whispered quietly.

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, the zeta-beam teleporter went off; Batgirl had entered the training room. Her head turned to look repeatedly between Dick and I until she came to the realization that I was the one who had put him on the floor. "You absolute b*tch!"