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[bodilesswarrior]

[Her eyes are red, and her voice is flat.]

Cassandra Cain is gone.

Does anyone feel like sparring? [She wants to hit someone. She wants to sweat and ache and bleed.]

[Private to David Cain]

Not you. [Her laugh is low and choked.] It's funny, isn't it, that I don't want to hurt you? [But she's not sure she could stop herself from going for his throat, right now.]

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[anewlanguage]

[He tries to stop himself from asking, but every time he thinks of a change of topic, it just lands right back home again.]

Did you?

[bodilesswarrior]

Yeah. [She takes a breath, runs a trembling hand through her hair.]

I told her once - you remember that time she broke into Blackgate, to interrogate you? I was the one who told her it would work. I already knew you saw her as a daughter, as much as a weapon.

[anewlanguage]

[It's like hearing that someone has seen you naked, has read your mind, worse than that.]

...How'd you figure it out?

[bodilesswarrior]

[She likes that expression, most days. People realising she can bore straight into their soul and shed their secrets.

It doesn't matter, now.]

She'd run away from you almost a decade ago, but you didn't shot her when she shielded my father. You broke into Europol just to find those tapes.

[Her voice lowers a bit, cools.] And there's what you did to Vesper.

[anewlanguage]

Vesper.

[He keeps his tone neutral, or as neutral as it can be considering. He's sure he already knows Barbara's take on that but he needs to hear it--to be sure, to know.]

[bodilesswarrior]

Yes. [There's a ragged edge to the word, low and angry. She didn't know Vesper that well, but she didn't deserve that.

And Barbara knows what it is, to be a cog in someone else's grand plan. To be used and discarded, as if you don't really matter.]

You were testing him. In, I suppose, the best way you knew how.

[anewlanguage]

[He purses his lips because yes, it's true. He hates that it's true but he's not about to start denying it.]

...Was Bruce like that with you and the rest?

[bodilesswarrior]

...Not to that extent.

[She's quiet, for a moment, lost in a different sort of melancholy.]

He pushed everyone, and he didn't always know when to stop. He didn't always know when to say I'm proud or I love you. ...It was easier with Cass, since she could just see it, but - he still screwed up.

[So did she, sometimes.]

Me - I was never his kid, so it didn't... [A slight shrug.] And he was different, when I was Batgirl.

[anewlanguage]

Cassandra wasn't his kid either, was she? [For some reason--one other than the obvious--it bothers him to think that she might have been.] She was yours.

[bodilesswarrior]

[Something tugs and twists in her chest, and she blinks hard for a few moments.]

She was both, really. But Bruce - he didn't really know how to be a father, any more.

[anewlanguage]

He never did. I mean...I knew him. He wasn't as bad as some but good fathers, they have something you just can't have if you're gonna be the kind of person Bruce is. [Or Cain, for that matter.]

It always surprised me about you, actually. Looking at your record as Batgirl and then as Barbara? You could do all the things Bruce does, but you still had...something.

[bodilesswarrior]

[She just stares at him, for a moment. It's odd to feel flattered right now.]

I still - [Her voice cracks. I still wasn't good enough, but she can't, she can't let herself drown in grief and guilt. It's not fair to the people who still need her, still love her.

It's not what Cass would want.

Instead, soft and strained: ]

I had a good example.

[anewlanguage]

[He can't discern the reasons behind her emotions but he can read them plainly, even a hint of the underlying ones. He's just not on sure enough footing to even try to ask about them.]

You mean from Bruce?

[bodilesswarrior]

[She barks out a laugh.] Hell no. My dad.

You know, the one you tried to shoot. [She can't be too angry about it, any more; it's how Cass became Batgirl, after all.]

[anewlanguage]

[He isn't sure how to react. Flinch? He wants to, can feel himself start to, but it turns into a short, cynical laugh.]

I know how to make an impression on you, huh.

[bodilesswarrior]

Oh, you sure do. I was ready to torture you almost to death when you showed up. [The words are light, but something twitches in her jaw. It's not guilt, so much as regret. She's glad it didn't happen.]

[anewlanguage]

[He doesn't feel threatened, exactly. He certainly doesn't feel upset.]

You could've. I wouldn't have put up much fuss, anyway. Course that might've ruined it, huh?

[bodilesswarrior]

[Wryly.] I don't know, I think Jason enjoyed it.

[anewlanguage]

[He snorts, shakes his head]

I don't think I've heard that story. What'd he get up to?