Ok, ok. I know I'm so horrible sorry.

I don't deserve the claim to optimism. I am such a freaking procrastinator I will die someday from putting off moving out of the way for a car.

Here's the chapter, don't yell at me sorry, it's rushed.

I mean what? Psh, I don't care.

As a young girl, storms had always unsettled her. It was something she would never admit out loud, or maybe even to herself, but as those all too familiar darkened clouds rolled in a heavy weight had settled upon her chest.

Storms meant a lot of different things for a lot of different people. When people were desperate for the slightest amount of water falling from the sky, they would create elaborate dances to appease their gods. For some, storms meant death and destruction. The falling of what they loved to the wind and rain. And to others, a storm meant rebirth. Like Noah and the Ark, a cleansing, a new beginning and fresh start. There was always going to be a rainbow after the hardship and all who could view it would marvel at the beauty.

She didn't have any of that though. For her, storms symbolized anger. This ominous foreboding of something that was bound to go wrong. Then she would think that someone was angry with what she had done and they had all the power to wipe her from the pedestal and have her on the ground begging for forgiveness. They always felt too full of rage, so harsh and brutal. Only after she learned who she really was did she understand that the god of storms was someone who embodied all of these premonitions.

Them she mirrored it, and every time the rain fell upon her, she felt the upmost anger. It reminded her of how she was never going to be in control of who she was and what she would do. They made her feel like a caged animal, lashing out and growling at the hand that tried to feed her. She glared at the sky every chance she got.

She didn't feel it now, the anger. It used to boil to hot under her skin, but it vanished along with the cheeky brat who could make them with him mind. No, no all she felt now was cold. The feeling was empty, to barren. She longed for something to lash out at, to fight and win.

The only person she fought with these days happened to share her thoughts, and that was a battle she would never win, no matter how much anger she felt.

At first, after him, the thunder stung. It felt like it was going to strike her down and rip her apart. Those nights alone listening to the sounds of the rain on a cabin rooftop, she felt so hopeless, if that was the right word. It was the understanding that the lightning could strike her down and she wouldn't even care. So yeah, it hurt, and then it healed. Healing. Hey, and maybe she was weak for being to damn broken. Maybe, it was so stupid that she tensed when the sky cracked down. To be scared of the rain.

No, not fear. It was remorse. She still felt the anger and lack of control of her life, how unfair it was but how useless it was to scream obscenities when no one can hear them. And then she felt the remorse, the feeling that she would never be able to look at a storm again without seeing smiling green eyes.

It was raining now. It always rained in Gotham. The city was a cesspool for crime and death, of course the sky was always overcast and the streets wet with last nights sky melting onto the earth. Maybe that's why she liked it hear, because all it brought to her was a dull ache where a scar was left on something other than skin, and that was better than the nothing she was getting to used to feeling.

It rained on the night he died. Big, fat drops of rain that she could still feel on her skin, the kind that blinded you covered every inch of your body till you shivered and shook. The kind that stung and mixed in with the tears that streamed down your face. The kind of rain that filled your ears till all you heard was downpour and the crack of the sky like a whip cracking down on your. The kind that drowned out your own sobs, all of the world falling deaf upon your ears.

Rain that somehow didn't wash the blood off her hand as it trailed down her-

"No, no, no. Don't you dare go there." She whispered, shutting her eyes painfully tight. Hoping that the world would have gone away by the time that she opened them.

Or that the blood would magically wash away from the wall. That would have been good too.

She tried to control the breaths that had become to come out in rapid pants, she would very much not like to have another nervous breakdown. Now that the shock had passes, the frantic tears drying on her face had left her eyes swollen and red, and her body ached along with her mind. She really had gotten too weak, when had ominous messages made her break into hysterics. Though, the fact that they were written in blood may have been a deal breaker, and that they had broke into the hotel room while she slept. The fact that they watched her so closely always made her shiver. How the hell was she supposed to fight them if she didn't exactly know who 'them' was?

Her head snapped to the side as she heard a floor tile creak right behind the bed. Faster then she was thinking, she had the knife she kept under the pillow in her hand and pointed at the intruder. Bruce, standing stoic and in costume. Her arms dropped back the side and she opened her mouth in a silent apology.

"You know, a knife is sort of useless if the intruder has a gun." He inquired with a longing look that he somehow managed behind his domino mask. She scoffed.

"Are you underestimating my abilities bother? If I remember correctly is was me who taught you how to throw knifes. You were a bit hopeless in technique." His cheek lifted ever so slightly and her eyes became downcast. "Besides, guns were never really my thing."

"Well I can get behind you in that." They fell into silence.

She turned her head to stare back out the window, the feeling of something crawling in her skin wouldn't disappear, no matter how much she denied that she ever felt it. I stayed there, a constant reminder that she was probably never going to be safe again. But who was she kidding, when has her life ever been safe?

"Do you remember that one time?" She began. "The gods were angry and it started thundering so hard.." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"You couldn't sleep." He supplied.

"I hate storms, they remind me of how much power I really have over my life. But yeah, I couldn't sleep, I kept having dreams about a giant skyscraper fallen into ruins. People were screaming, crying. I was just standing there, looking up at the carnage while it fell, while black smoke billowed out the top." She continued.

"I never knew that."

"I never told you." She went silent again.

"You told me a story. I thought I was too old for something like that, but the story you told really did help. You told me that there was line, between what was good and evil, but it's up to no one man to decipher it. You said that sometimes things aren't fair, and that when people do try and make sense of this line, it becomes warped and corrupt. If it was really bad to have revenge, then why was the drive programmed into us so? Who was to judge who got to die? Who was really innocent?" She wiped away a tear she didn't know was falling.

"Then you said something I've never forgotten, about monsters. We fight them, because they hate us and try to kill us. We fight them, but who decided they were really monsters. I've seen the Minotaur, but was it really evil? Or was it made that way when it was cursed out for its monstrous looks. You said that there is always a reason that someone is the way they are, or their not who you think they are."

"I remember." He said after a few moments. "Who do think they are?" He pointed to the wall where the message was written in blood.

Who were they? Why did they want her? Those questions never stopped running through her head, never stopped driving her mad.

"Honestly?" She sighed. "I have no idea."

"I do." Her head snapped up.

"You do?"

"I want to show you something."

That's how she ended up in the Batmobile. She could feel the car vibrating beneath her fingertips, but it didn't make a sound. She felt like grinning, like the car going 100 miles per hour would solve all of her problems. Oh how she wished.

"Did you build this?" She asked in childlike awe.

"No, a good friend of mine did, brilliant." He replied. They zoomed along the backstreets of Gotham, through allies and blacked out streets. Then they came to a country looking road heading straight for a water fall.

How the heck did he come up with that?

And then they stopped inside and she thought it was Christmas.

"You just have all the toys, don't you." She breathed. A little bit giddy.

There were countless pieces of technology on shelves and cases with suits inside them. She was afraid to ask why there was a dinosaur off to the side. Not to mention the fact that this place was an actual bat cave, smelling wet and damp, filled with the small screeches of the mammals in the near distance.

"Leave it up to you to make your hide out an actual bat cave, I should have expected nothing less." She felt a strange laugh in her chest that too much resembled a giggle as he glared at her halfheartedly.

He introduced her to a desktop to end all desktops. It had so many buttons, her head spun, but all at the same time, it made her want to know what every single button led to. In front of the console was a large screen depicting the commands, a file pulled up of a man.

"Who is that?" She found herself asking.

"A man, he died last night." Then he turned to stare at her, for a second she almost felt a sense of foreboding. "He was admitted to a mental health facility a couple weeks ago, I found this while investigating our problem. He had lost his mind, screaming on the top of his lungs about how the owls were coming. That man owns half of Gotham's downtown area."

"So what are you saying?" She squinted at him. "That this is some sort of power play. Take out all the heavy hitters and topple the power structure? To take over?"

"It would explain why they came after you." With the look he gave her, she could tell that if he wasn't so stoic, he would be wringing his hands.

"Well if your right, this isn't going to be fun, for any of us. What order this city has will be erupted into chaos." She felt like she was speaking to fast than what could be interpreted as not worried.

"You'll be protected, that's for sure." He added, as a quiet afterthought. She squeezed his shoulder.

"If we are right." She leaned forward against the console. "Than I hardly think I'll be the one who needs protecting."

"I'm not a child, I can't take care of myself." He huffed out indignantly.

"So can I, but that doesn't mean we should. I have a feeling this is not a matter to take lightly. We work together Bats." He went silent.

"It's too dangerous. You could get hurt." Was his half assed argument, she wasn't even sure if he was trying.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response."

"A bad argument, but unfortunately, a true one." He sighed.

"Every day of my life has been dangerous, this little escapade is no exception."

Silence, and then-

"Your going to need a suit."

Outside, lighting cracked.