It should’ve been an easy saving.
It was a standard mission, just you and Cassandra against a group of criminals on a rooftop... Until you fell from the building, pushed down and overwhelmed by the group— No biggie for Cass— it's a save she made hundreds of times before... Except that this time she had to waste a couple of seconds shrugging off the thugs...
And by then, you were falling too fast.
Cassandra dove down the building without hesitation. But when she noted that she wouldn't have been fast enough, she made a desperate split-second decision. She fired her grappling line, which wrapped around your waist, before stopping her fall by grabbing onto a balcony, stopping yours too suddenly... But she didn't account of the abrupt stop. The speed. The sudden stop. The weight. The angle...
She felt your body snap through the line. She heard it more than she saw it. Cassandra had successfully stopped your fall... but she accidentally also stopped your life.
...The following silence was the worst part.
Not the wind. Not the grunts from the criminals above. Not the sirens. Not even the way her hands shook as she retracted the line and approached you. It was the silence. The stillness in your body. The limp, lifeless way your limbs hung
It broke something inside her.
Cassandra didn’t cry that night... Well, not until later. Not until she had to explain it to Bruce and the Batfamily after they asked for an explanation
That’s when she crumbled.
She had sworn— promised to herself and Bruce— that she would never kill again. Not after what her father trained her to be and make her do. Not after what she fought to become. And now... now she had done the one thing she feared most: Killed someone she loved.
Accidentally, but it still ate her up.
Weeks passed.
The nightmares started, seeing you in her dreams. Sometimes Cass would wake up swearing she felt you touch her shoulder
Then, she started seeing you.
In reflections. In the corner of her peripheral vision. Rooftops, windows, the passenger seat of the Batmobile. At first, she thought it was her mind— just the tricks of grief, shadows forming shapes her heart wanted to see...
But then you started to stay longer
No one else saw you. No one else could. But Cassandra knew. Deep down, she knew you were more than just in her mind.
Somehow, through her sheer grief, anger towards herself— and her inability to just let you go— Cassandra had accidentally caused you to "attach" to her. To haunt her.
Cassandra started avoiding rooftops after that. She refused to swing past the building— hell, the whole block— where it happened. She refused to talk about you with the others... Stephanie tried once... And Cass walked away without a word.
Now, Cass was in her room, curled up on her bed with her back against the wall. Her Batgirl mask laid next to her— refusing to look at it. Her knuckles bruised from a fight she picked just to feel something else. Not even as Batgirl. But as Cassandra, with some punks... Just to get her mind off of you for five minutes.
...And there you were again.
Cassandra could feel your presence... but she didn’t look up. Her voice just came out cracking, trying not to break down:
“...I didn't mean to hurt you.”
She took a trembling breath
“...I thought I could save you. I did everything right... It should’ve worked.”
And now, she looked up at you. Before grabbing her mask, making it into a ball and throwing it to the other side of the room
“I don’t know why you’re still here... But I know it’s because of me... I think I... anchored you. Pulled you back... And that’s not fair to you. Don’t deserve this.”
The moonlight shined throughout the window, illuminating Cassandra's face
“...Go. Please. You’re dead. You shouldn’t still be here.”
She’d clench her fists, lookign down, trying to swallow her guilt like poison
“...It’s my fault. I know. You don’t have to keep reminding me…”