PAST IMPERFECT:
By: ShadowWing
Disclaimers: ShadowWing/Belle Anderson belongs to me. Argent, The Titans and all related characters belong to DC Comics. Last I looked the Statue of Liberty belongs to the people of New York, NY. (grins) No money is being made, comments welcomed, flames ignored...
"I'm started to worry about Argent, Nightwing." Sighed Jesse Quick over the radio link to the Titans De-Facto leader.
"Worried in what way." Came the reply.
"Ever since we took her parents into custody for selling Velocity 10, she's been distant, almost ashamed at times. No one has been able to get her to open up about it, no one here can really relate to it either. Roy tried, so has everybody else." Jesse shook her head in frustration, "Leading the team, no problem, running a corporate business, piece of cake, counciling an upset teenage superhero, I'm still new at that, care to give me some advice?"
Nightwing thought about it for about 30 seconds, "Call Arsenal, have him contact a former Titan named ShadowWing, he saw her last he should know where she is these days. She should be able to help Argent."
"Wait a minute.... I don't remember a ShadowWing, in the roster database, who is she?" asked Jesse.
Nightwing grinned, "Look under 'Nightingale' she changed her alterego awhile back. I gotta go things are nasty here in Gotham. I'll check in soon. Nightwing out."
After Jesse clicked off the connection Cyborg walked in, "Cyborg, what can you tell me about a former Titan named Nightingale?" Vic grinned.
"Do you want the official report, the surveillance tapes, or the total bill for damages?"
Jesse raised an eyebrow, "How about an address?"
Vic shook his head, "She's about as picky about her identity as Winger, I think Roy might know something though. Why?"
"Nightwing told me that she might be able to help Argent. Bye!" With a small whirlwind the speedster zipped off to find Roy.
Less than a minute later she had located Roy and he had placed a call to ShadowWing. Thirty minutes after that a figure in black and silver from fitting outfit was riding the barge to Titans Island. Donna glided to the dock to see who the stranger was. "Hello?" the Amazon asked. The figure waved.
"Hello Wonder Girl, or is back to Troia these days?" the stranger asked raising an eyebrow.
"Who are you?" asked Troia.
The figure shrugged, "Oops, sorry, forgot, let's see, " she cocked her head, "The last time you saw me was when I was walking out of the Original Tower with a unconscience Starfire on the floor and a ruined meeting room in my wake." Donna's eyes grew huge.
"Nightingale!" She yelled, hugging the other woman, "How have you been?"
"Fine, and I go by ShadowWing these days. Roy got a hold of me, something about your bust of the distributor of Velocity 10?"
Troia nodded, "I'll explain on the way in, um do you need a lift? Gliding is quicker..."
ShadowWing smiled and floated next to Troia, "My powers have gotten a ton stronger since last we met." Both women grinned and took off toward the entrance, with Donna's permission ShadowWing scanned her mind to get caught up with the situation involving Argent.
After they had entered the Tower, ShadowWing shook her head, "Poor girl I know where she is coming from, where is she?"
Donna sighed, "She's either in her room or out by the shore on the other side of the island. She's been keeping to herself since her parents were taken into custody. Do you think you can help?" Donna thought Nightwing suggested ShadowWing for this job because of her powers. Being a telepathic and telekinetic she made an effective councilor and neogatior. Both kept up the casual chitchat, as the checked Argent's room, nothing there. Next stop was to check the shore; sure enough there was the silver skinned girl on a small outcropping staring off into the ocean.
"I think I can take it from here Troia." Murmured ShadowWing. Already she could feel the girl's inner pain and turmoil; she took a deep breath and walked closer.
Donna gave a silent prayer to wish ShadowWing luck and headed back to the Tower to give them some privacy.
Argent heard somebody coming up from behind, she turned as whoever it was approached about to tell one of her teammates off, she just wanted to be alone. Why couldn't they just listen to her? The smart remark never made it out, there was somebody new behind her, and it made her nervous. "Who?" she managed to get out.
"My name's ShadowWing, I'm an old ally of the Titans, I think I was a member for all of two weeks. I just stopped for a visit, your Argent? Right?"
She nodded, "Don't tell me, the others sent you out here to talk to me." She then turned back to staring out at the water.
"If they did?" replied ShadowWing; "They do worry about friends and teammates, look at me! I'm a big girl now and Nightwing still plays protective big brother at times with me. Me, the person who could send him into orbit if I wanted too."
Argent almost giggled at the mental image she cooked up, she quickly sobered. "I'm glad they care, but none of them really understand what I'm going through, they have no idea what's it's like..."
"What if I told you I do know what you are going through." Murmured ShadowWing.
Argent cocked an eyebrow, "Yeah right, tell me another." She snorted with disgust; "Do you know how may times I've heard that one?"
"Too many." Replied ShadowWing, "Here's a deal I'll tell you my life story if you do the same and get some of this off your chest, and calm your teammates down." She held out her hand "Deal?"
"I could read your bio from Vic's databanks." Replied Argent.
"It would be a vague as Nightwing's" Smirked ShadowWing.
"I'm gonna lose this argument, Right?" Groaned Argent, ShadowWing smiled.
"Do you want to stay on the island where Cyborg has stashed listening devices everywhere or someplace else?" Asked ShadowWing. Argent answered by forming a slide and taking off, with a telekinetic push and a bit of luck ShadowWing jumped on her slide.
"Next time warn me!" laughed ShadowWing good-naturedly.
"I saw you flying earlier with Troia, didn't think I had to." Replied Argent.
"I'm a telekinetic, I can make myself fly, but if I do it too long I get one heck of a migraine. Head for the top of the Statue of Liberty, that should be private enough."
"Isn't that a bit...public?" asked Argent.
"This is New York, honey." Smirked ShadowWing, "Trust me, nobody will notice, if they do they won't care."
Argent just shrugged and arched her slide to Liberty Island and the top of the Statue's crown. After they had settled down ShadowWing sighed, "Much better view in my opinion."
"Okay spill it." Grumbled Argent.
"Ah, youth." Replied ShadowWing, "Okay, a deal's a deal. Believe it or don't Argent we have a lot in common. I was born to a rather well off family, not in Lex Luthor's league but not middle class either. Though my life didn't get interesting until I was about five years old. That's when I found out I had a sister, a half-sister."
Argent's eyes got huge. "That's about as bad as finding out your real father was an evil alien. Which one of your parents.... uh...."
"Broke the bonds of fidelity?" finished ShadowWing, "My father, evidently he was able to keep the affair a secret for quite awhile, she was born only a few months after I was. I was living with my parents, my younger brother and my grandfather; it was grandfather who found out about the affair and the child. He figured it out years earlier and forced my dad to at least take care of them both if not admit to the affair to my mother."
"Oh Jeez," muttered Argent, "How did you find out?"
"When I was five my half-sister's mother was killed in a mugging, Grandpa decided that since she had no other family she would come to us, needless to say my mother found out, and my father had a fit. Mom took it well, I think she suspected the affair for awhile and she didn't blame my sister for what my father did."
"Sounds like you had a creep for a father, like I do..." muttered Argent.
"Ha!" replied ShadowWing; "Argent I haven't even started yet..." She cleared her voice, "As I was saying my half sister came to live with us, no problem. I like having another girl my age around, it was great until my mother died in a car accident five years later." ShadowWing bit her lip, "That's when all hell broke loose." She took a deep breath before continuing, "Grandpa was out of the country, no sooner was mom in the ground then dad made... changes." By this point ShadowWing's voice had hardened.
Argent swallowed, "What kind of changes?" She had a feeling that almost being killed as a superhero-in-training with her first team would seem like cakewalk.
"I was sent to an out of state boarding school, my brother was too young to go so he was placed with a nanny, at that time I had no idea what happened to my sister, dad did a vanishing act soon afterwards. By the time Grandpa found out about mom's death...."
"Whoa, what took him so long to find out?!" gasped Argent.
"Simple." Shrugged ShadowWing, "Dad never told him, but when he did find out he bee lined it back home, pulled me out of the school, and looked for my sister. He also petitioned for full custody of all three of us, he won, because dad never came forward to challenge the ruling. Nice huh?"
Argent shook her head at least she didn't find out how much of a creep her father was till later, "Okay then, so you and your brother were home, everything was fine then right?"
"I'm wearing this costume, what do you think?" replied ShadowWing raising her eyebrow, "Yeah things were fine for a few years, we couldn't find my sister though, and since my father wasn't around to ask we never knew where he had taken her. Anyway when my brother was old enough he was enrolled in the same school I was already at. He was about seven when it happened."
"It?" Stated Argent, "Does every superhero have an 'It'?"
"I think it's in the fine print." Replied ShadowWing, "There was a six-foot chain link fence surrounding the school's parking lot, it was to keep the students in and everybody else out. Every now and then we would see several people hanging out around the fence. We students had been sheltered enough that we didn't know who they were and what they were doing. I think you can guess though." ShadowWing's voice became a bit bitter.
"Gang members." Replied Argent, "Drug Pushers." She had a sick feeling where this story was going.
ShadowWing nodded in agreement, "Yep and one day a deal went bad," she swallowed, "One of them had an automatic and went wild firing everywhere, I was in class but my seat was by the window, the younger students were playing just outside. Twenty students were injured; one was killed instantly. Guess which one?"
Argent shook her head, "I think I can tell, that is what got you into crime fighting wasn't it?"
"Yep, my original identity was "Nightingale" that's the name you'll find in Cyborg's Titans Roster. Years went on, my base of operations was in New York, and then one day out of the blue my dad came back."
"You mean, Poof! Just like that? Where had he been?!?"
"I didn't know but a few years working New York's Streets had made a tad on the cynical side, I knew he wanted something, I just didn't know what. I decided to give him a chance, after all he was my father."
"What did he want?" The suspense was killing Argent. 'Shoot' she thought, 'Who needs Soap Operas, superheroes lives are way more interesting!'
"He didn't tell me but I clued in real quick, when a group of New York's Finest knocked on our door stating they had an arrest warrant for my father. Oh, the charges were drug smuggling."
Argent's eyes bugged out. ShadowWing smiled, "Told you we had a lot in common."
The younger girl swallowed, "I had no idea, I mean.... I thought...."
"You were the only one, and like you my father wanted me to help him get off too. You see I didn't only fight crime with a mask on, I also did it without one. I was damn good too, my word alone in a courtroom would have gone a long way to getting him off free and clear. That's what he wanted me to do."
"But what did you really do?" asked Argent.
"As I said I was a bit of a cynic, so I did some checking, if he was innocent my word plus some hard evidence would clear his name completely. Boy did I find some evidence."
"He was as guilty as sin." Finished Argent, "You confronted him and he still wanted you to bail him out, after all you were family, you had to help him." Silent tears were streaming down her cheeks. "But you couldn't. As much as you still loved him you couldn't, what he did was wrong and hurt countless people, you had to do the right thing. You had to turn him over."
ShadowWing nodded, "That's exactly what I did, heck I took it one step further and testified against him at his trial, he never believed I would do so. Oh his lawyer tried to rip me apart on the stand, but it didn't work. He wasn't thrilled with me afterwards, as far as I know he's still rotting in prison."
"Do you ever see him?" asked Argent.
"Once upon a time I would have, but soon after his trial I was able to get a hold of a few of his files. I found out what happened to my half sister."
"Do I want to know?"
"Not really, but here's the gist, my father was into drug smuggling way before Mom died, after her death he decided to take it up full time," ShadowWing swallowed, "my sister was part of one of his deals."
"He... Sold her?" gasped Argent.
"But it turned out alright in the end, one of my street contacts that I helped in my early days ending up being my sister all along. We always wondered why a girl from the bottom of society got along and worked so well with someone from the opposite end of the scale." ShadowWing grinned. "I guess the whole point of this tale is that there's always a bright spot no matter how hard it gets."
Argent nodded, "I guess your right, I may have lost my father, but I have others who love me just as much. There's still hope for him, and my mother." She looked considerably better now than when the two of them left the Island.
"That's the spirit, now you think you can keep the rest of that crazy group from playing mother hen around you for a bit?" Smirked ShadowWing.
"I think so." Replied Argent, "I mean how can I turn down advice from someone with such good fashion sense, and similar taste?" Motioning to ShadowWing's silver and black uniform.
ShadowWing busted into laughter as she looked at Argent's black uniform with her silver skin. "Heh, good point, Race you back to the Island? Maybe we can catch some of the guys in a training session and have some fun."
"Sure!" As the two took off from Liberty Island one thing still nagged at Argent, "Why did you quit the Titans?"
ShadowWing smiled, "That's a story all in itself, you could ask Arsenal, Cyborg, maybe Troia, and defiantly Nightwing about it, but not Starfire. Here's a hint there's a reason to Nightwing's occasional "Oh No's"."
"I get it." Smirked Argent, and she began to chuckle, "Anything to do with the fact that Nightwing and Starfire used to be an item?"
"Now you're getting it!" Laughed ShadowWing. The chuckling continued all the way back to the Tower.