Catwoman #9: Sociopath
Fandom: Catwoman (comics)
Title: Labels
Characters: Selina Kyle
Rating: PG-13 for mature themes
Prompt: #9 - sociopath
Word Count: 180
Spoilers: Pre-OYL Catwoman.
Disclaimer: All DC characters are owned by DC. I reserve the right to play with them.
Summary: Selina reacts to killing Black Mask. Set pre-OYL.
Labels
They had put a label on her file once, back in Sprang Juvenile Detention. It was just after she’d beaten an older boy into unconsciousness for going after Maggie. “Sociopath” was stamped in never-fading red ink on her permanent record. A psychiatrist’s word. Something that was meant to explain why she felt so empty inside. It didn’t come close.
Selina would think of the diagnosis much later. It would come to her as she slept, dreaming of heists she had never pulled and cities she had never plundered. Her life sometimes felt like a long list of bad things she had done, redeemed only by the fact that she could have done far worse. Maybe that was why she had never believed in that label. She still thought about redemption, after all. But the label’s accuracy seemed to change when the inevitable happened and she finally took a life. Did sociopaths kill to protect the people they loved, or did they do it only to protect themselves?
It bothered her sometimes that she didn’t know the answer.
Title: Labels
Characters: Selina Kyle
Rating: PG-13 for mature themes
Prompt: #9 - sociopath
Word Count: 180
Spoilers: Pre-OYL Catwoman.
Disclaimer: All DC characters are owned by DC. I reserve the right to play with them.
Summary: Selina reacts to killing Black Mask. Set pre-OYL.
Labels
They had put a label on her file once, back in Sprang Juvenile Detention. It was just after she’d beaten an older boy into unconsciousness for going after Maggie. “Sociopath” was stamped in never-fading red ink on her permanent record. A psychiatrist’s word. Something that was meant to explain why she felt so empty inside. It didn’t come close.
Selina would think of the diagnosis much later. It would come to her as she slept, dreaming of heists she had never pulled and cities she had never plundered. Her life sometimes felt like a long list of bad things she had done, redeemed only by the fact that she could have done far worse. Maybe that was why she had never believed in that label. She still thought about redemption, after all. But the label’s accuracy seemed to change when the inevitable happened and she finally took a life. Did sociopaths kill to protect the people they loved, or did they do it only to protect themselves?
It bothered her sometimes that she didn’t know the answer.