❛ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 ❜

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Stephanie sighed, brushing her blonde hair off her shoulder. "Well, it started roughly about three years ago." She began narrating. "The Joker was still alive then and it was that year that he had launched a siege on the Gotham castle."

To this Barbara nodded. "I doubt any of us will forget that. Especially since it was then that..." Barbara bit her lip, trailing off and shaking her head with a smile. "Never mind, please continue."

Cassandra quietly sat on the edge of the cot and listened.

* * *

"Your Highness!" A guard burst in the royal throne room, announcing himself to the frowning King Bruce and the young green-eyed prince beside him, who were overlooking a map of the castle and surrounding grounds.

"What is it?" King Bruce asked, his eyes darkening knowing that it most certainly was not good news that the soldier was bringing.

"The King Joker has stormed the village inside the walls!" The huffed, the out-of-breath guard reported hurriedly.

"What?!" The young Prince gasped. "Those gates were bolted shut! There's no way he could have gotten in!" The elder royal's eyes narrowed. "Not unless someone opened it for them." He said menacingly.

"How are the frontline troops doing?" He demanded. The soldier shook his head. "Falling by the second, Your Majesty. We can't hold off any longer."

King Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "Damn. And Dick's still off with his Titan's Division." The young Prince beside him was silent for a moment and then looked at the King with a fire in his eyes. A fire that had always worried the King.

"B. Let me command a garrison! I can try to take back the village or at least close the gate so no more can get in."

King Bruce sat down on the throne and gave his son a sharp look. "No, Jason. You'll be staying inside the castle. I will not be placing you in any direct combat for some long time."

"Bruce! People, our people, are dying by the second! If I can help them then I must! Even if it wasn't a duty of being a prince it's still my duty as a citizen of Gotham!"

Bruce sighed heavily as if something was weighing down on him. "Jason, one of these days your big heart and brashness is going to be the downfall of you."

"I think your overprotectiveness may get to me first." He muttered under his breath as he left the throne room and back out into the hallway where Alfred was waiting to take him to the upper wing.

King Bruce turned back to the guard. "I'll head out myself to re-claim the lower villages and deal with that madman. Come with me." He said, getting up, with his black cape flowing behind him. "Yes, Your Majesty!" The soldier responded, following his King.

* * *

Elsewhere in the castle, Jason stopped following Alfred and stood still. "Alfred," He started, making the elderly man turn and look back at him. "Master Jason?"

"Those gates had to be opened by someone. So said opener had to make an escape afterwards, correct? He is a traitor now after all."

Alfred gave the young boy a look that said, 'I know what you're going to say and I won't like it.'

"If he or she had opened the gates for Joker, probably joining or already joined him, the only escape, considering now that the main gates are flooded with enemy soldiers, is the castle's aqueducts. Bruce is busy fighting off the Joker and no one is going after our traitor." Jason's green eye's narrowed determinedly. "So I'll have to be that no one."

"Master Jason!" Alfred said disapprovingly. "While I am well aware of your achievements with your ongoing training, I doubt Master Bruce will like having you go down there by yourself. Nor will I for that matter."

"Relax, Alfie. How hard can it be to take down one person? I'll be fine. Besides, being Robin gives me magic after all." He grinned mischievously.

Alfred gave Jason a side eye. "If Master Bruce heard you say that..." He started warningly.

"Yeah, yeah. Him and his magic-phobia. It makes me wonder why he adopted me considering my own mother was a witch." Jason scuffed his shoe against the hall floor. Having a half sorcerer parentage had always been a sore spot for Jason considering how magic was hated in Gotham. And people most certainly were not very kind after finding out his parentage.

Alfred gave a comforting smile towards the young boy. "I can assure you Master Bruce did not adopt you looking at your birth. He genuinely cares about you as if you were his own son."

"I stole his horse." Jason rolled his eyes. "Then he adopted me. I literally cannot explain that man's reasonings."

"But moving past that, I'm going Alfred. Bruce can't do everything himself." Jason insisted, running down the halls and stairs towards the aqueducts.

* * *

"Prince Jason found my father, who was escaping through the aqueducts and confronted him." Stephanie continued, sitting up straighter, off the pillow she was resting on. Barbara and Cassandra listened quietly, letting Stephanie talk.

"My father; Arthur Brown, was his name by the way; had been working in the castle prior so he was familiar with the castle and had a perfect position to let in enemy soldiers. The Prince didn't know though, that my father wasn't alone in the tunnels."

* * *

"You honestly believe that I'll just let you go?" Jason shot back. Arthur Brown sighed. "No, I don't believe you'll simply let me leave. But I suppose it doesn't matter. Someone else has been wanting to meet you."

"Somone else?" Jason questioned. He heard footsteps behind him and turning around, came face-to-face with the one person even he wasn't brash enough to fight alone.

"Your unroyal princeliness." The person mock bowed, revealing a wide, unhinged grin.

"Isn't Bruce in the village, fighting you?" Jason started back unconsciously. The look in the person's eyes screamed of insanity, danger and to run away.

"Bruce-ey, the Old Boy is dealing with my lovely Queen Harls at the moment. I've been down here waiting to meet you. And how I've been waiting..." He laughed, starting towards the boy, his green eye's widening. "We'll have lots of fun, won't we?"

Jason's world turned black and the very last thing he heard was laughter ringing in his ears.

* * *

"Of course, my father," Stephanie said with ill-concealed disgust, "Was never caught. And after the King had finally reclaimed the outer villages, with the Joker and Harley running off in retreat, he came back to find that the second prince had been murdered."

Cassandra observed the two faces carefully as the story was told. She didn't really need her physic abilities to read what they were thinking. Stephanie looked thoroughly ashamed, disgusted and a little angry. Barbara, however, had this odd look that Cassandra wasn't quite sure what to make of. There was a hint of guilt mixed with grief and a few emotions she couldn't recognise that made her normally calm green eyes look stormy. She was worried but she wasn't going to intrude on her thoughts either.

Stephanie took a deep breath to calm herself as what she had told troubled her deeply. "So, even though it was my father who ran off to the Joker's side and had a role in the second Prince's death, I still feel as though... I have to atone for his sins? It may not make sense but I hate what my father did so if I can get back at him in the slightest way by joining the army he fought against then maybe, just maybe it would atone?" Stephanie's voice seemed to crack a bit and Barbara placed her hand on the younger blonde, understanding.

"Sorry," Stephanie sniffed, rubbing her eyes. "I hate to burden you all with this. You've been so nice and understanding. My secrets were kind of eating away at me. I blame my positive personality."

Barbara laughed. "Well, I think I speak for the both of us when I say we honestly don't mind. We don't mind you're a girl or that you're a traitor's daughter and we may even overlook your occasional bad jokes."

Cassandra nodded at the foot of the bed and gave Stephanie an easy smile. "Beside's it's not like you're the only one with a secret or two," Barbara said tellingly. "Right, Cassandra?"

"Since you told us your story, would you like to hear ours? " Cassandra asked.

Stephanie blinked. "Did you say that?" She asked Cassandra. The oriental girl smiled. "I did."

"You did." Stephanie intoned. She blinked again and fell backwards onto the bed.

* * *

Author's Note: The Royal Gotham Girl Gang has arrived!~