[fic][DCnU, Booster, Barbara, PG] A Memorial Lost to Time

[ajremix]

Title: A Memorial Lost to Time
Fandom: DCnU
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1108
Characters: Booster, Barbara
In Response to: frimfram's boostlethon: "DCnU. Booster Gold and Barbara Gordon don't know each other, and can't imagine what they'd have in common - except a powerful, unaccountable sense that they've both lost someone (or something) important."
Summary: Reference to Kord Tower from BoP v2 #5. There's a building in Gotham that Booster feels drawn to. And he's not the only one.



The building stood a gleaming testament to human ingenuity and defiance clad in reflective glass and gleaming blue steel. It struck, needle point-thin, into the sky while the other buildings around were all harsh-edged, thick-bodied cubes that strained to reach great heights.

It was a beautiful building, belonging to some rich industrialist, and watching the way it caught the light was breathtaking. But there was something about it... something about it wasn't right. There was something missing and Booster couldn't figure out what.

He'd seen the building on the news about some breakthrough or other. He hadn't been paying attention- all Booster saw was the building in the background and he was drawn to it. Which was why he was in Gotham- after having vowed to himself never to set foot in that godforsaken city -and staring up at it. It seemed to be his new hobby whenever he actually had a moment to himself. It was really rather pathetic if Booster actually thought about it, but whenever the urge to go see the building hit, he never fought it.

He kept trying to figure out why it made his heart ache so much. And what about it was wrong. Not the bad, villains-are-lurking-inside kind of wrong. Just a sense of... off. As if maybe the color wasn't the right shade of blue or maybe the angle of the roof was a couple degrees too sharp.

"Are you an architectural buff?"

Booster was jolted out of his meandering thoughts. He turned. A few feet away from him was a lovely young woman, her lush red hair falling in soft waves around her shoulders, eyes sharp and calculating. There was something familiar about her. Familiar and a little bit off, just like the building, but Booster couldn't place his finger on what.

"Not exactly," he admitted, turning back to the tower. Maybe it reminded him of his home time? No- Booster couldn't recall a building looking remotely like this one.

"I see you standing here every now and again so it must be something."

He gave her a sideways look. "Yeah? You don't happen to work here, do you?"

To Booster's surprise, a hint of a smile touched her lips and when she looked at the building her eyes seemed to soften. "No. Something about this building sort of... draws me, I guess."

"But you don't know what it is, either."

Her voice came out almost like a sigh. "No."

They stood, watching the building in silence. Something itched at the edge of Booster's brain but he couldn't figure out what it was- if it was about the building or the woman next to him or if the two were somehow related together. It felt like the three of them were points of reference, tips of a triangle whose point of intersection was obscured. Whatever common thread it was that tied them together, Booster was blind to it.

"So," Booster asked because he was tired of his mind running itself in confused circles, because he was tired of not understanding what he couldn't understand, "what do you think when you look at this building?"

The woman let out a brief hum of thought. "I feel like I should know this building. I should know everything about it- all the floors, all it's secrets. I feel like I should have been the one to create this."

"Why? Are you an architect?"

"No," she admitted, looking almost sheepish at her words. "It just... it feels like this building should be a... a gift, I suppose. That doesn't make any sense, does it? I can't imagine any situation where I'd make a building to give to someone. Especially one so huge."

Booster dwelled on her words, swirling them around, mixing them with his own emotions and confusion. "I don't think it's that weird," he said finally. "I feel kind of the same way. Not me making a building for anyone- nothing like that. But more like... this building is supposed to embody something. Maybe someone. Like it's supposed to represent an idea. Something I care about deeply. Something that I should remember..." He gave a little huff of laughter. "That probably didn't make any sense, did it?" But when he turned to the woman, she was looking right at him and Booster knew that she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"It's not weird," she said quietly. "It's not weird at all."

They stood quietly and watched the building. There was a connection between the three of them now- not remotely like the one they knew they were still missing but it was something. The building was now a memorial to something lost and the two were the observers, the ones grieving for something they no longer had.

A truck rumbled up to the gate at the parking lot's entrance, drawing their attention. Its side read WayneTech Wayne Enterprises. The strong line of the gothic font seemed jarring, too stoic and cold for the building. The title seemed wrong, the name hardly looked like a name and, somehow, it seemed to embody all that was not-right about the building. Booster didn't have to ask his companion if she felt the same way. He could feel in the change of the air between them that she did.

With the quiet, contemplative moment broken, Booster half turned to the woman and said, "I'm afraid I should get going. Though in case I end up seeing you here again..." he held out his hand and gave a smile, far more real and honest than those captured in commercials. "I'm Michael."

She wore her smile like an heirloom coat, carefully preserved and only taken out for special occasions and she had a grip like someone expecting to be underestimated. "Barbara."

He nodded to her, glad to find someone who could understand what he couldn't explain. "Take care. Maybe we'll see each other again."

"Maybe," she said to Booster's turning back. It was only when he thought about it on the flight back to Metropolis that he recalled the tone in her voice, as if she knew something he didn't.

~*~*~*~

When Barbara returned to her home, she brought up all the information on Booster Gold she had. He'd only ever been a mere peripheral hero to her before, but now that she had actually met him, actually spoken to him, something had changed. It felt like there should have been some sort of common ground between them but the universe had cut it out of existence. She read his file and thought and dwelled and her heart ached for something she knew she was missing.

Comments

This is the only kind of reboot regret fic I can stand

[milliondreams.livejournal.com]

I love (most of) the reboot. And I have hope that those old friendships can begin again. It's a whole new world, but we can take the best parts of the old, too.

Also, they should make Connor Hawke Ollie's half-brother. Only dynamic it would change is theirs!