Titan Reborn

[hawkfire]

Bette Kane had been on her way to join West Point when the memories had suddenly flooded her mind. Things she'd forgotten - rather, things that had been taken from her - were suddenly coming to the forefront of her mind. Memories, experiences, friendships, hopes, dreams, crushes. Holes that she hadn't realized she'd had in her past were suddenly filled in. In the space of a few moments, Bette Kane had felt whole again.

As a matter of course, she'd realized that going to West Point, following in her cousin Kate's footsteps that way, wasn't what she was about at all. So she hadn't gone. Instead, she'd returned to Gotham City for a few days, trying to gather herself and her thoughts. Writing down the new memories so she wouldn't forget them again. Trying to make sense of who she was now. Having been encumbembered by that past had been good for Bette. It had allowed her to grow, and she promised herself that she wouldn't allow anything to stunt that growth.

But she also needed to reconnect with the past that had been excised from her mind. The past that she had been disconnected from.

Which was why she was here, now. Titans Tower. A place she hadn't been in years. A place she hadn't even recalled that she'd been to before. But she had been. She'd been a Titan, once.

The last time she had been here, she'd been Flamebird. A failed hero. A joke. That ditzy blonde who'd gotten into the heroing business because she'd needed friends, because she'd had a crush on Nightwing. She wasn't that girl anymore. She'd nearly died, but she had survived, risen from the ashes of Flamebird into something else. She was Hawkfire now. She'd been trained by Batwoman, by her Uncle Jake and his Murder of Crows. She'd faced a Legion of Monsters, Bane, Mister Freeze. She wasn't perfect yet. But she was better than she bad been.

Will it be any different, though? she wondered, looking up at Titans Tower. through the lenses of her bronze half-helmet Will they remember me? Will they respect me? Or was she doomed to always just be that one hero who would never make it? Bette drew in a deep, shaky breath, and then steeled herself. Bette didn't know if anyone was inside, if she could even get access in. But she had to try.

Small glider wings popped out from the pack on the back of her uniform and Hawkfire flew up to the top of Titans Tower and landed atop where she knew the common living area had been. She peered inside, wondering if there would be anyone peering back.

The fact that someone inside might consider her an interloper or something hadn't even crossed her impulsive mind.

Comments

[strata_guise]

Atlee followed Bette's eyes and smiled. "Is that you?" she asked. "I like the skirt."

[hawkfire]

Bette grinned. "My first costume. I looked like I stepped off of a beauty pageant stage after the talent portion." Which, not that far from the truth. As a child, Bette had been a regular on the child beauty pageant circuit. "Funny how eventually, a costume becomes something closer to a uniform." Which is what she regarded the current Hawkfire suit.

[strata_guise]

Her eyes briefly fell over a group shot of Arsenal's Titans, which included the second Terra. Poor girl. Atlee hadn't known her personally, but she had heard about what she had sacrificed to continue the Stratans' mission to protect the Earth, and how it had all immediately gone sour, leaving her amnesiac and prey to foul forces. And eventually dead.

Atlee looked at a more recent one, which included Nightwing. "Huh. Except for the helmet, his costume kinda looks like yours."

[hawkfire]

Bette follow's Atlee's gaze to the group of Arsenal's Titans, her eyes sweeping over the team. It's one of the teams she wasn't on. Big surprise. Bette had always been one of the last ones chosen.

A question died at Bette's lips with Atlee noted the thing about Nightwing. Consciously, her hand went up to the burnished hawk emblazoned across her chest. "It's funny," she said. "When I first chose my codename - Flamebird - I didn't think it would ever end up tying up to him. Even though, you know. I liked him. And then he went from being Robin to being Nightwing, and suddenly a connection was born. Nightwing and Flamebird were Kryptonian heroes."

A shadow flickered over Bette's eyes. "Not that Nightwing ever really wanted to give me the time of day. Or night." There was no bitterness to her voice. Some sadness, yes, and some wistfulness. "When this look was designed...well. I didn't think about the similarities. But I knew the name had to go, you know? Nightwing and Flamebird was never going to happen. I had to become something else. Something more." Something that didn't carry the weight of all of her failures as a hero and a Titan.

"I hope maybe this time I can prove myself." She smiled, then, and shook her head. "Sorry. This got a little heavy. But it always does with him."

[strata_guise]

Atlee gave her a sympathetic smile. "You loved him, didn't you?" she asked.

"Er, sorry... that was probably rude."

[hawkfire]

"No, hey. Not rude at all. I'm not...you can ask me anything, or say anything around me, Atlee. I'm an open book." It took a lot of offend Bette, and she didn't mind people asking her questions. She had never really been the type to close herself off from people. "

"I did," she answered the question, reaching up and touching the picture. Her fingetips traced along the blue emblem that ran across Nightwing's chest. "And it was woefully unrequited." She helplessly shrugged at Atlee. "Maybe things would have been different if I were a fiery redhead instead of a bubbly blonde, who knows? But I'm trying to leave that in the past. Accept that some things will never be."

[strata_guise]

"Fiery redhea...?" Atlee trailed off for a moment, but then a lightbulb went off. "Oh! Kori! I thought I remembered her talking about a guy once or twice..."

"I don't think they're still together, for what its worth."

[hawkfire]

"He had a thing with that other Batgirl, too. The redhead." Okay, so he had a type. Clearly, so did Bette. Unattainable men with great butts.

Bette started to move further into the Tower. "But like I said. Things I am trying to move away from. I'm trying to focus more on school and on crimefighting. Being the best that I can be and all that, you know?"

[strata_guise]

"I do," Atlee said. "I know the feeling. I used to... run myself pretty ragged, really. Jumping from one emergency to the next. Power Girl taught me I needed balance if I was going to be more than just Terra."

[hawkfire]

"I've been told I tend to jump in before thinking, and that's...gotten me into trouble more times than I can count." She'd almost died because of it. "But balance is important. A job. School. A hobby. Something, anything. I'd say dating, but let's be honest - dating and superheroics? Totally don't mix. Unless you're dating another cape."

[strata_guise]

"I'm pretty sure I'd be terrible at dating anyway," Atlee said. "I still haven't gotten all the surface world customs figured out yet."

[hawkfire]

"Let me know when you do," Bette laughed. "They're more complicated than they need to be, even for people born and raised on the surface world."

[strata_guise]

"Everything's so simple where I'm from," Atlee said. "If you like someone... you just let them know. Nothing complicated about it. Except for Lava Trolls. The females throw rocks at the males, and it means something different depending on the type of rock."