Earth-52 IC

[industrious]

Crime Alley Rooftop

Stephanie just makes choked sounds; tears run down her full-face mask and stain the black, so that it's transparent. Slowly, the gun starts moving back down. Back towards being pointed at the ground.

Her rage dissipates, replaced by an exhaustion both mental and physical, and her breaths are long and ragged.

"I..."

BANG.

She stares at the gun she's holding, panic evident through the lenses of her mask.

"Itwasn'tmeItwasn'tme."

It wasn't.

So caught up were each of them in Stephanie's near-patricide that they hadn't noticed what was happening in the Alley below them.

A somewhat youngish couple. Dressed far too finely for this part of town, though; the man is wearing a smart suit and trenchcoat; and the woman, pearls. More accurately, though, the man had been wearing a smart suit and trenchcoat. The man was gone; a corpse remained. Shot by a mugger in front of his wife and young child, no older than ten.

"We...we should help him...right?"

It's terrible to watch; the woman is begging him to stop, but the mugger's gun is already pointed at her...

But each remembers Ra's commandment. Not to interfere. Not even to help. Because of the changes that could be made. They were there to stop the Cluemaster from changing history, and it would be hypocritical to make changes of their own. If they were heroes.

But that young boy...

Spoiler

Show

A trip to Crime Alley in the past without seeing this? What sort of Gotham campaign did you think this was?

Reactions from everybody, and then it's back to the present. Which is the future, so...you get what I'm saying.

EDIT: Kate and Lock-Up know who is being shot due to their connections with the Waynes via social circles/gossip or business partners.