#n i will say i am not a fan of cass' arch at all. i liked her in the first season n most of the second season but s3 just. ruins her for me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ain-t-bovvered · 5 years

Note

Babe, I need a commentary on "Swan Song" more than I need my next breath. Pretty please ‼️

[Send me an ask with your favourite or a random SPN episode and I’ll comment on it while re-watching it.]

+SPN Commentaries+

Season 14

a/n : all the episode SPN gifs are made as I watch , unless they’re from google , you can see that if they are. If you can’t see them you need to use a computer or use the gifs post right under the episode link.

UUUGH *wraps herself in a blanket*

[zoom on Dean as the song goes “don’t you cry no more” ] J F C

[Chuck’s voice] “On April 21st-”

[slams the laptop close] I can’t do this.

————————————————-

- I gotta .

*sobs* [open laptop] “ -1967 , the 100 millionth..”

- “the most important car “

-” Getting folks right for judgment day”

- “ a used car-lot in Lawrence, where a young marine bought her on impulse” [sucks breath in]

- “ Where the story begins ..:”

- “…and here is where it ends”

- “Watching out for you,it’s kind of been my job” “ it’s kinda who I am”

- “I let him out…I gotta put him back”

Goddamn it this will hurt like a son of a bitch , I can’t even be funny

- I always cringed seeing those two demons hanging from the ceiling to bleed out like pigs honestly.

-…and damn that fucking jacket!!!! I hate whoever stole it with all my heart

- Oh fuck Sam’s so disgusted and scared

- Looking at Castiel sleeping in the back “oh ain’t he a little angel?”

S:”Angels don’t sleep”

D: Well…fuck

-DETROIT

-S “Dean I’m sure he know a buttload we don’t”

-S” you gotta promise me you are not gonna try to bring me back”

D: WUT, lol sure

-Apple-pie life ….sorry but that doesn’t suit neither of you. AND just because Idgaf about y’all haters….I don’t even want that for them . I mean…I don’t see supernatural ending like that , do you? Blaze of glory guys.

-HE DID NOT PROMISE THO

-time for the goodbyes .

- S “Do you mind not watching this?”

[skipping forward crying] I CAN’T YOU GUYS FUCK YOU

also…that was a lot to drink, I can barely drink two bottles of water a day without being sick.

-S “ We’re here you sons of bitches”

MOOD

- Hey Lucy…looking rotting

- All those little details in the car makes me so sad and warm and happy, ffs

-WHY DOES HE KNOW ABOUT THE RIIIIINGS

-oh my fuck look at Dean right now….my heart

-The moment where Sam becomes Lucifer…..DAMN JARED

- And here we have the entire fandom mood

-The mirror talk

-Samifer: “ Such anger, young Skywalker”-Samifer “ we are two half made whole”S: first of all EWW

-Jesus H Roosevelt Christ , that is so not Sam

-”Sam Winchester this is your life”

Hi hello, uhm…can someone send help? I think my heart is being ripped off

- C “I suggest we imbibe copious quantities of alcohol “ A MOOD

- D” yes, well, .thank you Bukowski “

- OH WOW BOBBY’S BROKEN FACE DOESN’T AFFECT ME AT ALL.

Jk that’s insufferable

-”Sam used to insist on honest jobs.” that’s cute.

-”They could go anywhere and do anything” LIVING THE LIFE I WANT

-”Sure , they never really had a roof and 4 walls, but they were never, in fact, homeless “

-”It has to end where it started I guess”

-”You are gonna do something stupid. You got that look” TELL ME AGAIN HOW BOBBY IS NOT THEIR FATHER

-”Well I ain’t gonna let him die alone”

[ok …I’ve run out of pitiful cats pics ]

-oh well that’s a graveyard that @curly-haired-disaster would enjoy

- Angels and their constipated staring contest.

- is it bad that I find the fucking Devil reasonable ?!?!?! Like??? he’s?? not wrong??

- JFC Michael is so…aseptic

-but also I’m imagining this with Michael true vessel and I’m dying because….PARALLELS

ALSO , Michael and Lucifer:

- [PURR] *GASPS* OH look it’s Dean doing something stupid.

-[Rock of Ages starts to play ] My lame 90s’ ass:

*record scratch* In my defense….nope…there is no excuse….proceed *record starts*

-”it’s better to burn out than fade away”

D mentally : hello you stupid motherfuckers, Dean-suicidal-tendencies-because-nothing-to-lose is here.

- Michael : RUDE

-Lucifer : lol I love this stupid son of a bitch, i’LL KILL HIM LAST

-”Hey, we need to talk”

can someone get me an infinity rule to measure Dean’s balls right now?

- Satan: This is a new whole mountain of stupid” also I’m so entertained right now. You go mud monkey, do a little dance.

-Dean addressing Adam

Adam in hell : SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH

- AND HERE WE HAVE THE GREATEST INSULT

-also…HELLOOOO YOU CASTIEL HATERS MOTHERFUCKERS, HE LITERALLY JUST SIGNED HIS DEATH TO GIVE 5 FRIGGIN MINUTES TO DEAN FOR SOMETHING HE ISN’T EVEN SURE WOULD CHANGE A THING

- Satan “ did you just molotov my brother with holy fire?”

Castiel : …..nnnnno…?

[SPLAT]

- Lucifer grabbing Dean by the collar , slowly , saying “ You are such a pain……” [dramatic pause because Lucifer is a drama queen] “…in my ass”

HOT.

(please don’t start sending me Wincest or SamLucifer x Dean or SamxLucifer stuff , I still don’t like them)

- NAH BOBBEH

- “Oh he’s in here all right” …. kinky

(please don’t start sending me Wincest or SamLucifer x Dean or SamxLucifer stuff , I still don’t like them)

- [Dean gets trashed]

- The toy soldier!!!!

-THE FLASHBACKS

-OH my god he’s so scared and oh look you can see the moment he gives up

-those silent goodbyes

- [gross sobbing]

- also….bye forever Adam and Canon Michael arches.

-The moment Dean realize it’s done and his head bump into the car and his lips trembles and his eyes are so lost and full of pain and then he closes them and turn his head [fades to black]

OH LOOK HE IS ON HIS KNEES , FUCKING GREAT THANKS…..wow ok YA REALLY NEED TO STOP MAKING ME DO COMMENTARIES ON SAD EP , but that would mean that there would be just a handful left then….

- *whop whop * here is Castiel

- D:”Cass are you God? “

C: “ no but I’ll make you scream that later in the seasons.��That’s a nice compliment, but no”

- C: “ New and improved” CASS IS A SERAPH NOW , [LEVEL UP]

- “ you try to tied up any loose ends, but you never can “ … are the writers calling themselves out?

“The fans are always gonna bitch”

HEY

“There’s always gonna be holes”

yeah riiiight

-D “ wow…God gives you a brand new shiny set of wings and suddenly you are his bitch again”

oooooh speaking the truths and we all know what happens in season 6 .

C : “It’s just seems like the right thing to do”

me : *cringe *

- D: “ All I’ve got is my brother in a hole!”

- C: “ what would you rather have? Peace or Freedom ?”

CASTIEL WHAT’S WITH THESE IMPOSSIBLE CHOICES, JFC he’s already starting to sounds like what he’ll become in season 6

- D:” You really sucks at goodbyes”

-Bobby and Dean’s hug *sobs*

-Chuck:” Every part of him, every fiber he’s got wants to die…”

thanks god, I hate it

- “..he’s made a promise”

A VeRy FuCKIng StUPid onE

- THE VOICE CRACK

- Chuck:” they did alright”

*spluttering* I’M SORRY WHAT

Also FUCK OFF WITH THIS MUSIC AND THE FLASHBACKS

-”Nothing really ever ends”HERE….RIGHT HERE…at the time I’ve watched this the first time I was…..BITCH WHERE U GO? AND THEN…….OH..OOOOH YOU MOTHERFUCKER.

God every time something bad happens on heart, heaven and hell :

OH WAIT …

-[ camera pointing in Sam’s face] and where the fuck did you come from bitch.[Hello by Adele starts to play]

Next up : Free to be you and me

ugh I forgot who wanted the tag in these so I’m tagging the ones from the season 14 ones

@waywardbaby @ravenangel33 @mariekoukie6661 @wayward-and-worn @spnskinnyballs @starfirerules @cloverhighfive @supernatural-teamfreewillpage @dragontamerm @closetspngirl @rainflowermoon @destiel-honeypie @mattiecat @bunnybaby121115 @aliaitee @jacks-word-of-the-day

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renaroo · 7 years

Text

Promises (6/30)

Disclaimer: Batman and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: One Year Later/Evil Cass allusions Rating: T Synopsis: For an entire year after the Crisis which threatened to wipe everything they knew and loved off the Earth, after so many hardships and loved ones lost, Cass and Tim find themselves battling on different sides of the globe not only for the fate of what’s left of the world, but for the sake of once again feeling purpose. [A One Year Later fixer upper]

A/N: This chapter was slightly hard to write because Cass is my girl and any emotions she feels just get me unlike few characters I’ve ever written, so putting her through the ringer right now is a test on my own writing fortitude lol

Special thanks to @secretlystephaniebrown, @slytherinkyuubi, @chimaerakitten, and an Anonymous fan on tumblr for the feedback and suppot!

Hurt

Cassandra could feel herself drowning again.

The water boiled around her, ate through her skin and bone. She couldn’t move, even thrashing seemed to only encourage her body to stiffen tighter and tighter in the coils of death. Her throat burned, and she wanted to scream not because she was dying, but because against her will, against her sense of peace, her body was being willed to live again.

She was utterly ensnared in the waters of the Lazarus Pit, kicking and screaming, until finally she tore her way through and clambered to her feet, breathing heavily and holding back the tides of the Pit from trying to wash her back down again.

Only, there was no Pit. There were no waves, no currents, no boiling fires or the smell of death and sulfur.

Clenched in her fists were the two sides of a bedsheets torn in two. And her feet rested not in the banks of sand but in a mattress that was far too accommodating for someone who had shot out of it like a slingshot.

Cass continued to breathe heavily, looking around her room as her eyes tiredly adjusted to the change.

It wasn’t even dark, at least not anymore. Sunlight was attempting to pour into her room despite the obstruction of the curtains. And outside her door the Manor’s halls were apparently lit as the light was brightly shining through the cracks.

She hadn’t been revived again. She wasn’t suffering in the pools of green hell water. She wasn’t drowning.

It had been a dream.

Except for the part where all of it had been utterly, truly, overly real just days before.

Exhausted before even starting her day, late as that day may have already gotten without her, Cass dropped the remains of her bedsheets and hopped down from her bed. The baggy I bat Gotham shirt hung halfway down her thighs, and her loos drawstring pajama pants far from matched, but Cass had never been one for fashion all the same.

She walked toward the door, rubbing her face and leaving her hair to stick up on ends that she wasn’t aware she had grown back yet, and opened herself and the room up to the world of the living.

From the first step on, things were startlingly routine.

Cass maneuvered silently through the mansion on instinct, arriving in the kitchen and perching on a seat by the island that let her pull up her feet into the seat and rock steadily back and forth on it as she yawned and rubbed at her eyes again.

Somehow, magically, Alfred came along and was already halfway through making her a breakfast of her favorite things.

“Look as though we will be out of cereal soon between you and Master Richard,” Alfred said, though there was a curl to his nose as he examined the box of sugary treats.

“He here?” Cass asked, leaning her cheeks into her hands as she watched Alfred.

She already knew the answer.

“I am afraid he and Master Tim are both at the hospital. He is determined to talk some one who did not earn their doctorate into taking his cast off early. I am assured that Leslie and Master Tim will put a stop to it before he comes too close to sawing it off himself,” Alfred announced, pouring milk in a bowl then orange juice in a cup.

“Bruce?” Cass asked.

She already knew that answer, too.

“I am afraid he is at work this morning, Miss Cassandra,” Alfred said before putting her tray before her. “But, as always, I am here to serve, Miss Cassandra. Happily, contently, forcefully,” he joked before poking at her nose.

Despite herself, Cass laughed at the affectionate gesture and picked up her spoon. She was two scoops in before she looked warily in Alfred’s direction. “Alfred?”

“Hm?” the butler hummed as he turned back to her.

“I tore my sheets in half again,” she informed him, beginning to gulf down what was left of her cereal. “Third time. Let’s just not change them anymore. S’not working.”

A worried look crossed Alfred’s face and then he sighed heavily. “You absolutely will have new sheets, Miss Cassandra. There will not be a charge in my home without proper covers. But I once again must urge you to seek out someone to talk to about why you continue to have such violent nightmares, dear girl.”

Cass finished her cereal in record time and gabbed her orange juice to take with her, pushing off from her seat.

“Not just dreams,” she said as she walked off. “Me. I’m just… violent.”

Alfred let out a discouraged noise but Cass couldn’t bare to witness his disappointment in person. Instead she headed for the Cave.

It was time to train and hope that, eventually, her demons could simply be fought away.

By nine, Cassandra still had not seen Bruce, Dick, or Tim, but she also did not bother Alfred with any questions as to why that might have been. In truth, it was difficult for Cass to get past the numbness that overtook her throughout the day’s routine, as the rawness of waking from her nightmares grew more and more distant to her.

She trained and she ate and she spent all of it alone where once it might have felt like an intolerable amount of time.

For Cassandra, it was old hat.

At nine, there were still a few hours before peak patrol time, and the Manor was growing more unsuitable for the restlessness Cass felt after hours upon hours of numbness. So she suited up and went, without warning, to the small, private airfield in Bristol where the Aerie One was currently grounded in secret.

Though, considering a suited up Batgirl was heading toward it in the dead of night while on a Batcycle probably brought into question just how firmly kept that secret could be.

Still, for as unconventional as Cassandra could sometimes be, she was not refused in the slightest as she came on board.

And more than that, she was expected.

Helena Bertinelli — the Huntress, as Cassandra knew her better — was in a purple sweater with black leggings, holding a smoking cup of coffee that must have been freshly made as its smell permeated the entrance of the plane. “Hey there, didn’t realize we were doing this in costume. I would’ve been dressed more appropriately.”

Cass gave a small shrug and came on into the plane. “Going to patrol. After.”

“Makes sense,” Helena said, shutting the door behind her and following Cass to their usual spot. “Did you pick up the book I recommended to you? I know it’s in Bruce’s library. I called to make sure.”

“Not yet,” Cass said, pulling up into the desk chair and drawing her legs up to hug against her chest. “Phonexes today. Yes?”

“Phonics, yup,” Helena replied, settling down beside Cass with her coffee, taking a sip. “Have you been practicing on your own?”

“Yes,” Cass lied easily.

“Mmhmm,” Helena said before pulling out the phonics cards they had been using for the last week. “Well, going through these will be pretty easy tonight then, right? We’ll get you right on out to patrol before the Scarecrow can split a hair.”

“R-right,” Cass said less confidently, arching her shoulders forward in a way that draped her cape to cover more of herself.

The numbness ebbed away for the first time that day since it had arrived uninvited, but feeling was not always better than not feeling. Embarrassment flushed her cheeks and flustering caused her brows to wrinkle as she studied cards with ridiculous rules.

Part of wearing her costume was because of her anticipation for an upcoming patrol, but another part of her costume was the importance of her mask. It shielded her face in ways few things could, keeping Helena from seeing her full reactions to being told no and try again over and over.

It also hid the genuine excitement and relief that crossed her entire body as a correctly pronounced card was placed in the good pile, that was done for the night.

In a way, Cassandra hated how learning made her feel. And she hated how ds and bs were not interchangeable but sometimes cs sounded like ks until chs and ths came by to also confuse her. And then as sometimes on cards in certain fonts she could mistake for qs and it was so hard to remember z at all because she saw it so little.

Cass hated it so much.

But she hated even more that the emotional exhaustion she went through while Helena’s steady, calm demeanor was as practiced and poised as ever. She lived for teaching, Barbara had once said. It was as natural to her character as putting on a cape.

And that made her particularly frustrating for Cassandra, just like the rest of the family. Because it meant Cassandra’s struggles — if she let them be seen without her mask — were quick to be judged. She was certain of it. Even when Helena assured her otherwise.

“Well, I think it’s safe to say you didn’t actually practice on your own since last time,” Helena said, putting down the cards after what felt like ages to Cassandra.

Shame came down, crushing Cassandra as she buried her head in her knees. “Mmsorry,” she muttered.

“It’s alright, but you need to remember that learning is just like anything else. You get out of it what you put into it. Even if you sometimes have to put in a little more effort for something like reading than you think others do, it’s no bigger of a deal than them having to put in extra work in order to fight as well as you do,” Helena said as she put up her teaching materials.

Cass’ frown only grew and she narrowed her eyes as she looked at Helena. “No one… feels this bad about not having good enough kicks or punches. Not like I feel now. For reading and for… just talking,” she pointed out sharply. “And no one… thinks Tim’s stupid because he kicks too slow!”

Helena’s brows furrowed in response and she set aside her coffee mug. “Wait a second, Cassie. Who’s calling you stupid?” she demanded.

Immediately, Cass curled more into her cape, instant regret coursing through her. Barbara’s words were still there, in the back of her mind, vicious and unthinking in a way that Barbara almost never was. It was the first thing that came to her mind, like always, but it was far from the last or only.

Truth was, she had seen the flicker of resentment from many faces, many times over the years.

“Everyone,” she finally answered. “They… think it.”

“And they’re wrong,” Helena said firmly.

“No,” Cass said, hugging her shoulders. “Nyssa… she said she could teach me… Told me I was… broken to everyone else. That’s why no one tried—“

“Hey, isn’t this trying right now?” Helena pressed, tapping her finger on Cass’ books. “There’s nothing broken about you, Cass. You’re different. You’re amazing… and not everything can come as naturally to you as fighting and reading people. That gets you frustrated and makes you not want to try. I understand that more than almost anyone else. That’s why we’re working together.” She then turned to gather some of the items on the desk together. “That’s why I keep telling Barbara you would be better off coming with us when we take off. But even if you don’t want to, then you and I are going to make a schedule and keep in contact on Skype or phone — however we can get it to work so you’re still tutoring—“

Caught off guard, Cassandra perked up and looked Helena’s way with wide eyes. “Take off?” she repeated, startled.

Helena looked at Cass warily. “Yeah, we’re leaving next… Oh, for godsake, she didn’t—“

Getting to her feet so fast, Cassandra accidentally sent her desk chair flying back into the wall behind her. “Where’s Barbara?” she demanded.

Covering her face with her hand and sighing deeply, Helena pointed toward the cockpit. “Damn it, Babs.”

Furious, Cassandra took off for the front.

Cassandra nearly burst down the door in her anger and she wasn’t even sure if she would have cared had it happened. Instead she just barreled on through to where Barbara was sitting beside Zinda at the helm with a large projected map of the east coast out before them.

Both women looked back in surprise.

“Easy on the Aerie, she’s a sensitive lady!” Zinda admonished, pulling back on her cap.

To her credit, Barbara seemed more expectant. “Cass, how did your lessons with Helena go—“

Ripping off her mask so that Barbara could see exactly how upset she was, Cass glared at her mentor. “You’re leaving? You’re leaving again!?” she cried out in anger.

“Whoo boy,” Zinda muttered, looking less comfortable by the minute.

“Yes,” Barbara replied. “Dinah is taking time off to retrain and—“

“And?” Cass asked, nose curled as she got in Barbara’s face.

“The Birds are needed elsewhere,” Barbara fought back stubbornly. “Our main headquarters is a plane, Cassandra. We operate across the world. We don’t belong only to Gotham anymore. We can’t stay in one place. It’s… Well, it’s dangerous.”

Narrowing her eyes, Cass clenched her fists so tightly she could feel the knuckles popping. “It’d be with me,” she hissed. “You promised—“

“I’m keeping my promises,” Barbara assured her holding up her hands. “I am, Cass. I never lied to you.”

“Then why can’t I go?” Cass demanded.

“Because I’m keeping my promises,” Babs replied in frustration.

Easing back, Cass felt like she could breathe again. “You’re… She’s going with you?”

“Yes,” Barbara said, though her expression could not have looked more soured if she tried. “Sandra Wusan is a probationary member of the Birds of Prey. She’s getting her second chance… though I’m not taking her out of her cell until I’m sure we can push her off the plane at about a thousand feet first if we need to.”

Relieved, Cass tilted back her head and smiled. “Good. This is good,” she said firmly.

Zinda looked back and forth between them before scratching at her head. “It is? Well I hope someone bothers explaining how!” she groaned. “We’re keeping a murderer on the Aerie One… and then there’s the Lady Shiva business!”

“I can hear you,” Helena called as she came to the cockpit’s door. “Babs, are you honestly telling me you were going to leave without even offering to bring Cassandra with us?”

“It’s okay,” Cass assured her tutor. “Understand now.”

“Understand what?” Helena demanded, still eyeing Barbara for answers.

“Cassandra and Shiva cannot be together,” Barbara said firmly. “First off, I wouldn’t allow it after what she put Cass through over the past two years. Second off, it’s… It’s Shiva’s only motivation. She says she will keep her promise to Dinah for the next year, but it’s Cassandra… Cassandra is going to be the only thing that truly motivates her to stay on this path. They both have something to prove to each other.”

Helena looked to Cass sympathetically. “Isn’t that something that would be easier to prove if you were allowed to work together?” she asked Cass gently.

“No,” Cass said. “She would want me to… kill her. It’s what she… really wants.”

At that, Helena and Zinda looked at each other equally perplexed.

“We’re gonna get a woman to change her mind about not killing other people for a year so that she can ask her daughter to kill her at the end of it?” Zinda asked.

“Shiva is not Cass’ mother,” Barbara said firmly. “She gave birth to Cass. That’s it. And I still haven’t ran the DNA test so it’s taking Shiva at her word—“

“Yes,” Cass answered more simply.

“Helluva year it’s about to be, isn’t it?” Zinda asked Helena.

Reminded of just how long it was going to be, Cassandra looked back at Barbara. “I… I won’t see you?” she asked.

“Of course you will,” Barbara promised. “Maybe not always in person but…” Babs reached forward and tenderly cupped one hand against Cass’ cheek. “Cass, you’re everything to me right now, you understand? You’re…”

“Batgirl,” Cass completed.

“You’re Cassandra, and even if you don’t know it yet, that is a thousand times more important to me than even Batgirl,” Barbara answered. “I want to do right by you… to make up for all the big and small mistakes over the years and more. I’m doing this for you… no matter how hard. I’m going to try to show Shiva she has a second chance — that she doesn’t deserve. And that it’s because of a daughter — that she really doesn’t deserve… that doesn’t belong to her.”

Cass wanted to find the words within her to dispute Barbara, to remind her that everyone had the opportunity — the second chance — for anything. And that if they did not believe that for the likes of Shiva, how could they begin to believe in it for themselves.

For their relationship.

Reaching down, Cass cupped Barbara’s chin in her hands and offered a small smile.

“Thank you,” she said instead. “Thank you for helping Shiva.”

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Barbara’s smile came through and she pulled Cass by the waist into a hug. “It’s for you, but alright.”

Closing her eyes, Cassandra tried to imagine that hug could last them more than only a moment in time.

Patrol, if it could even be counted as patrol, was mercifully short by the time Cassandra had made her parting words and embraces with the Birds.

As Barbara had wanted, she never saw Shiva in that time, and in a way Cass thought it was best. Knew it was best. Because as much as Cassandra wished to help the mother who birthed her find reformation, the rest of the path had to be Shiva’s or it was not going to be true at all.

Afterwords, Cassandra did not detect anything unusual until she pulled into the cave on her bike and found no one else coming in for the night.

It wasn’t unusual for Cass to be the last to call it quits on patrol, but the Redbird and the Batmobile looked practically undisturbed when she passed between them. She even reached down and placed her hand on the hood of the Batmobile and found it cold. It had been sitting there for a while — if it had been used at all that night.

And more alarming was that Batman was not sitting at the computers, filing away his findings of the night, updating files, doing basic casework. Which, in truth, he had been doing more than actual patrolling for the last week or so by Cassandra’s estimations.

Her heart began pounding in her chest. Something was dreadfully wrong.

Without even changing at her locker, Cassandra ran up the stairs to the Manor, ripping off her mask and all but kicking down the grandfather clock in her desire to get to the others of the Manor and fast. She did not know what was wrong, but she knew it had to be something.

Even the Manor air felt stale and choking as she raced through.

She desired to shout out for the others, but she couldn’t even fathom what names to call, what danger could be available. Not until she reached the foyer and found four surprised expressions meeting her.

“Miss Cassandra! Thank goodness you’re here,” Alfred said, putting a hand to his chest as he breathed with relief. He then looked to Bruce, Dick, and Tim. “I suppose you were about to surprise her with this announcement as well, Master Bruce?”

Breathless, Cassandra tried to calm herself down — everyone was fine, everyone was alive. But there was an unmistakable tension between all of them. Alfred’s anger was hardly subtle, which was a rarity for the butler. Tim was to the side, further from Bruce than from Dick, the same deadened expression he had worn since Superbly’s funeral clear on his face. Dick was limited in movement due to his injuries, but he kept on the balls of his feet all the same, shifting uncomfortably under Alfred’s gaze and Cass’.

Bruce was… Bruce was walled off and not looking at Cass completely.

When there was no cowl, it was his greatest tool to keep her from reading him like a book.

“You shouldn’t be upstairs in uniform, Cassandra,” Bruce said first, because of course he did.

Cass’ brows furrowed and she stood her ground, glancing across all of them. “What’s wrong?” she demanded.

It was then that she noticed the packed suitcases and totes behind them. It was then that Cassandra’s teeth began to grind as she worked desperately to refute her own conclusions.

“Nothing’s wrong, promise, Li’l Sister,” Dick said with his own note of desperation. “We just… Well, not we,” he said with a flicker of resentfulness in his glance toward Bruce. “It’s been decided that the three of us are going on a trip.”

For a moment, Cassandra stared at all of them in disbelief. Then she produced a scowl to rival the Bat’s.

“You’re leaving me too?” she demanded angrily.

“Too? What do you mean? Cassie, it’s just—“ Dick began.

“No,” Cass said, holding up a hand to silence Dick. Her full glare was on Bruce. He finally returned it. “Why?” she demanded.

“You’ve not been honest with me recently,” Bruce surmised. “I don’t know what happened in—“

“Not your business,” Cass snapped.

“You are my business,” Bruce retorted.

“Master Bruce, really?” Alfred cut in before Cass could shout back. “I believe we are all speaking out of turn and without enough thought. If we could only take a moment to talk this through and not last minute go on a cross world tour—“

“It has been decided, Alfred,” Bruce continued. “It’s necessary. Just like it’s necessary for Cassandra to stay—“

“Why!?” Cass demanded.

“Because Gotham needs protection,” Dick answered for Bruce. Cassandra looked into his eyes and, as usual with Dick, they were open with honesty. “It needs it, Cassie. It needs someone to be the Bat in town while Bruce is away and… and I’m not in condition. It’s why I’m going, too. Isn’t that right, Bruce?”

Cassandra looked squarely at Bruce — at Batman — but… she did not find either. The man who stared back at her was… vacant. Injured. He hurt in a way that bent his character and confused his soul to an unrecognizable fashion. She wasn’t sure who he was anymore.

And the same judgment, the same view, was looking back at her.

Bruce didn’t know her anymore either.

“Gotham needs Batman,” Cass said, breaking the silence. “That’s… what you wanted me to be. Isn’t it? That’s why… It’s why I’m learning to read. Isn’t it?” When he didn’t immediately answer, she stomped down her foot. “That’s why I’ll do it. That’s why I’ll stay. If you still want me to… be you when I’m gone—“

“You should want to read because it’s a necessary skill for your independence and livelihood, Cassandra,” Bruce interrupted.

She couldn’t cry, it wasn’t like the other night with Tim. But she certainly felt like it.

“You should want to be Batman again,” Cass retorted angrily, “because… Because Bruce Wayne sucks!”

With that, she stormed off to her room, ignoring the calls after her.

She slammed her door behind her and covered her mouth with her forearm as she squeezed her eyes shut and bit back a scream. Her blood boiled like Lazarus waters and she, for a moment, missed the numbness in exchange for the rage and upset that pumped through her veins instead.

#writing #batfic #Batfic: Promises #Cassandra Cain #Alfred Pennyworth #Helena Bertinelli #Barbara Gordon #Zinda Blake #Dick Grayson #Bruce Wayne #Tim Drake

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