Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Being involved in vigilantism wasn't exactly your dream job. If you told yourself a few years ago that you'd be out at night, punching down dangerous criminals? you'd laugh in your own face.

Working under Batman would be an even more shocking revelation.

It was an accident really, your friend, Luke, had recommended you to work with his father, Lucius Fox. 5 months into it and you'd accidentally stumbled upon an injured and unmasked Batman. Who'd have thought it was Bruce Wayne of all people?

He kept an eye on you for a while, until you proposed that you could help him directly, it’d be easier to do so rather than pretending Bruce Wayne was suppling Batman with cars and gadgets. Nightwing vouched for you and thus, you began working directly in the Batcave. So, although you didn't start to actually be on the field until rather recently, you've been working with Batman since...

Jason was Robin.

You think about him sometimes—No, a lot. He was one of the reasons you accepted Barbara's offer to be Batgirl, it felt like you still had a part of him with you. As if he was watching over you. You wish he could see you now. Watch you train the same way you would him.

There were days where all you could think about was Jason. You'd imagine how it would be like if he was by your side right now, he'd probably tease you about your costume to no end before getting flipped over by you. Maybe you'd finally get to drink smoothies on a rooftop together like you always talked about. You still miss him so much.

Tim is fine, though. You think he's alright.

October 31st, 20xx.

It was supposed to be a fun night out on Halloween after 6 months of nonstop vigilance, but alas, nothing ever goes right when it comes to Gotham city. The city of high crime rates, you like to think.

Scarecrow seems to have attacked ACE chemicals and is spreading fear toxin amongst civilians from above. This definitely wasn't a one man job, other than the fear toxin, non of this screamed Scarecrow. But for now, your attention was on him.

Per Bruce's orders, you were to help and protect Barbara in the Clock Tower should anything happen. The two of you were tasked on getting more secure radio lines, helping with technical difficulties and figuring out just what in the hell Scarecrow was up to.

You sat on the couch as Barbara continued to type away at the computer. The clicks and clacks of the keyboard being the only sound in the tower. You were unsure of what to do with no orders given. You were helping just now but honestly, this was more of a one person job. You didn't mind helping with the technical stuff, that was your thing behind the scenes after all. But after a bad week, you’re just itching to be out on the field right now. At least you're not the only one, you suppose, since Tim is stuck indoors as well.

You kinda felt bad for him, having to work on a cure for the Joker infection during a time like this... Especially all alone. You wish you could help. But he at least got to do something. All the while you were just helping every few minutes with the tiniest of problems and you've been here for what feels like an hour. You swear that the biggest thing you've done today was try to convince Bruce to let Tim help and that ended up not going so well.

Speaking of Bruce, he hasn’t relayed anything in a while. He can handle himself, sure, but that doesn’t mean you can’t worry.

The clicking stops. You look up to see Barbara leaning back in her chair, arms stretching upwards. you take that as a sign to start conversing.

"So ACE Chemicals huh...” You start to trail off. “Hey Babs, isn't that the same company who's had more people fall in their chemical stuff than Dick's amount of losses during last time’s game night?"

"Well, I wouldn't say it's had more people than Dick's losing streak."

You chuckled. Dick was always competitive during game night, but when you guys played uno for this month’s game night? It didn’t go so well for him. Now ACE Chemicals was a different story. "I'm honestly surprised they still haven't been sued yet. I mean, why go through the trouble of robbing banks when you can get all that money legally?"

"Well—" Before Barbara could finish, Bruce popped up on the screen. You both turned your attention towards it, the two of you immediately getting back on track.

"Have you found him?" Barbara inquired.

"Get out of there, now!" Bruce yelled into the call. Now that was starting to worry you. You could feel the panic start to set in.

"Relax, Bruce, no one knows we're here." She reassured.

“You don’t understand it’s—“ Before Bruce could finish, the line was cut off.

You immediately got up and moved towards where she was sitting "Shit - Babs, we have to go—" Before you could even touch her, you felt a sharp pain on your arm. You looked down in horror.

A tranquilizer dart.

Your body went limp. You quickly leaned to the side so you could steady yourself on the couch - albeit while struggling. Everything was getting hazy. It's like your mind couldn't focus on anything other than trying to keep yourself up. Your legs felt like it was going to give out at any moment, both of your arms felt so weak.

The tranquilizer was working, and it was working fast.

Your words were slurring, Barbara’s name coming out in incoherent noise. You couldn’t even panic properly, your mind was slowly feeling like mush Suddenly, someone grabbed you by the shoulder and roughly turned you around. You managed to somewhat make out who it was before fully passing out.

Chapter Text

Your head hurts.

You woke up in what seemed to be an interrogation room. You were handcuffed from behind, the position already getting uncomfortable. At least the cushions on the chair were nice. There were tables on each side of the room, on them were objects that you could only describe as odd looking.

Your mind was still reeling from what happened - What happened? How long have you been out for? It must've been a while, judging by how your neck was likely hurting from not having support for too long. You tried to roll your shoulders but suddenly jolted in pain from the action. Shit, your right shoulder was probably bruised. 

Wait, bruised? 

That's when it hit you, someone had grabbed you earlier. Someone had tranquillized you. You still remember the sting from the shot. And like a light switch had turned on, you thought of Barbara. Your eyes darted across the room in search of her. 

She was nowhere in sight. 

Your breathing began to be quick and uneven as panic began to settle in. Where was she? Was she safe? Oh, god, what if—what if she's... No. You took a deep breath; panicking wasn't going to solve anything. You instead tried to recall everything that happened and how you ended up here.

The two of you were in the tower.

Someone had cut the line with Bruce, along with the power shortly after.

Someone shot a tranquilizer dart at you.

And you were apparently held by the shoulder so hard that it still ached.

The perpetrator..?

The Arkham Knight. 

Only having heard him through comms, you had very little idea of what he was really like. You could only describe him as a bit cocky, and he seemed to know a lot about Batman, he even knew the weak points of the batsuit. Including everything else that was happening, he’s clearly a major threat. All you can do now is find a way out and hope Barbara is alright when you find her. If Scarecrow's here, you're afraid he's already dosed her with some of his fear toxin.  

You have to think fast.

Getting out of these cuffs should be easy enough, they weren't exactly all that high quality either. Now all you needed was a safe way out. The door seemed to be unlocked, but there's no way it'd just be left unguarded, that’d be too easy. Luckily, you manage to spot a vent in the corner of your eye that seemed the perfect size for you to crawl through. Things were starting to look bright.

You're interrupted from your thoughts with a creak from the door. Escaping will have to wait a little longer. You hope it's just a random guard and not Scarecrow. 

From the few times you've encountered him, you've grown the opposite of fondness for him. And if you had to be honest, a tiny part of you was a little scared of him. His file spoke of things that truly made you nauseous. The most recent report you read was when Joker broke him out of Arkham Asylum. He attempted to dump an entire bag of fear toxin into the prison’s water system. Thankfully, it was quickly thwarted by Batman before he could do any real damage.

He was never caught, and now he was wreaking havoc on Gotham once again. Seriously, you’d rather deal with the Arkham Knight than have to deal with him.

But of course, whatever being was watching over Gotham decided to ignore your pleas. The door was now fully open.

"Ah, excellent. You're awake." You could practically hear the smirk coming from his voice.

Scarecrow. Just your luck.

He walked in with a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. A guard came in tow from behind him with heavy suitcases. "Patient notes: Batgirl. Session one." He read out loud. The guard laid down the suitcases on the table to your right. One clicked open and medical tools were taken out. Something caught your eye, a few syringes filled with yellow liquid. 

Fear toxin.

"I'm sure you're well aware by now of what I specialize in." He reminded as he walked towards the table. 

You glared at him. Of course you know. You've studied his fear toxin, just six doses of it injected into someone could make them lose their minds—or worse, die.

"Then you'll answer this carefully." Maybe you were hallucinating, but you swear you could feel his eyes on you. An awful sense of dread grew strong, your stomach felt like it was turning. He's in front of you now, and closer. The syringe was ready in his hand. There wasn't any fear toxin in your system, and yet you were truly terrified right now. 

"Who is Batman." He asked. The syringe just inches away from breaking your skin. The smell he was omitting was almost rancid. God, he was your least favorite criminal when it came to being face to face with.

"Get lost."

He chuckled. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to my preferred methods, but I am delighted anyhow." The needle pierced your arm and you jolted in response to the pain. With the fear toxin in your system, your greatest fears were all around the room. You tried closing your eyes, but not even that worked. 

"Don't make me inject you again." You're not sure what expression he makes, his face distorted by the toxin. "Now tell me, who is Batman."

“No—“ Another dose injected.

“One more chance.” His voice completely distorted. You almost didn’t hear his question, too busy fearing for your life. “Why don’t you ask him… When he gets here.” You spat. It was hard to talk when your greatest fears were right in front of you, but fortunately, you were still able to somewhat fight the toxin.

“It’s unfortunate how difficult you’re being,” He steps back, taking something from one of the men who came in earlier.

“I wonder how many doses it’ll take until you fully break.”