#surprise appearance by vigilante in there too. yes i know it defies canon and i don't care. i needed her to have a right hand man

[practically-an-x-man]

"And if you need any help- Please. Hesitate to ask."

Just a little prompt for you

Oooh, I've been pondering this one for a while and I think I want to try something with Nikoletta...

____ New Blood

Word Count: 2.2k Content Warnings: mild fighting, nothing too extreme ____

Nikoletta Bordeaux lounged on her cot, picking at a loose thread at the corner of her blanket. Reputation only ever got her so far. These long days got boring, and the amount of shenanigans she was able to pull were few and far between most days. It didn't suit her to start trouble just for starting trouble - it wobbled her seat of power, her carefully-balanced perch at the top of the food chain - and Waller hadn't brought in any new blood lately.

Which left her with very few things to do. She'd done her rounds. Everybody here knew who she was, the power she held. She wasn't hungry, nor tired enough to sleep. She'd scoured the halls for gossip, ducking into shadows to eavesdrop, and had come up with pitifully little of interest.

So she waited. And hoped something interesting would happen eventually.

She didn't realize she'd begun to drift off until a metallic clang startled her awake. Nikoletta jolted upright, one hand sneaking automatically back towards the far corner of her cot. There was always a shadow there, something to sink into if anyone tried to cause her harm-

But it was only Waller, standing in the doorway with one first against the metal jamb. She offered Nikoletta a thinly-veiled glare. It was a look she returned.

"Up, Bordeaux. Now."

"Fresh meat?" Nikoletta guessed, drawing her spine straight in an unconscious attempt to appear more powerful. It worked on most of the other prisoners. It did not work on Amanda Waller.

"A few." she responded, lifting her other hand to show off a fistful of manila folders. She tossed them onto the cot, the strings in the cheap mattress creaking with the impact. Nikoletta closed her fingers around them as if they might grow legs and skitter away.

"Finally." she muttered under her breath. Waller hmphed from the door.

"They're getting introduced now. Read your files and get out there."

"Pushy, pushy." Nikoletta said, daring to look her right in the face, "You're getting awfully demanding, Amanda."

"You're not the one in charge here, Bordeaux, much as you like to pretend you are."

"You and I both know I'm here of my own free will," she fired back, her New Orleans drawl ribboning around the words and softening her threat into something more languid, "There's nothing you can do to hold me here."

"Believe me, we'll find something." Waller hissed, her voice icy. There was something practiced about it. Nikoletta would know. She'd done the same. Amanda Waller waved a hand, tension clear in her posture. "Read the files. Take care of it. And if you need any help- please. Hesitate to ask."

She was gone before Nikoletta could say another word.

Sighing, she flipped through the files. There wasn't much excitement to be found.

One man would be serving life after he sent Superman into respiratory distress with vaporized kryptonite. Typical. Half the inmates in here for targeting Supes. It was like some kind of ego boost, trying to find a way to take down the most powerful man in the universe. None succeeded, and those that survived were sent to Belle Reve. At this point, it was almost pathetic. One would think they'd at least pick a new target.

Two women were partners in crime, sent in together after attempting to bust into Fort Knox. One of them could make herself intangible, the file read, and the other had some sort of hypnosis that distracted the guards. Both would be sent to private cells, with power dampeners to prevent escape.

If there was one thing Nikoletta was certain about, it was that they'd find her swinging from a water pipe before they ever put a power dampener on her.

She almost smiled as she read the next file. The man - a dark-haired, slender fellow with tired eyes - was claimed to have taken down all of STAR Labs before he arrived. If so, good riddance. Much of his file was redacted in dark ink, unfortunately robbing her of the chance to read that whole story, but she hoped it had gone up in flames. She hoped there was nothing left of that infernal place.

Which left the last one. Another man. His file had been redacted too, even more than the prior one. She didn't get a name, nor a birthdate, nor what he'd been sent to Belle Reve for. She didn't know if he was a meta or not - often very useful information, for someone like her. All she had was a photo, pinned to the corner of the file. There was a smudge at the bottom of the photograph, a drop of spilled ink that had been ineffectively wiped away.

Waller's signal.

Whatever he'd done, she didn't want to deal with him. She wanted him gone.

Easy.

Nikoletta stood up from her cot, pausing to stretch her aching limbs. Sometimes she wondered where those aches came from. A remnant from her capture at STAR Labs? Her body warning her that it wasn't meant to dive between worlds like she did? Or simply a lingering echo of her malnourished childhood?

She didn't know. It didn't matter. She'd never let them see her pain anyway.

Nikoletta tugged a pair of leather gloves onto her hands, flexing her fingers a few times to loosen them up. It was the only amenity they'd willingly offer her, and largely because the alternative was worse.

She spared a final glance at the files, then tucked them under her pillow. Waller would collect them later. Nikoletta never got to keep what she was given.

She took in a deep breath and straightened her spine, drawing into her mind images of power and grace. Outside this room, she was so much more than herself.

The Queen of Belle Reve stepped out of her cell.

____

"Which one, boss?"

"Haven't spotted him yet. Seems he's a bit of a loner." Nikoletta responded, lifting a soggy French fry into her mouth, "You'll know when I mark him."

"But I never get there first when you mark them." the man muttered, hunched over his dinner tray, "Can't you just let me have him? Once?"

"Be my guest. If you'd like to end up in a week of solitary." she snapped, giving him a warning look, "If you want my protection... you follow my rules. Nobody goes down unless they're marked. We keep things clean around here."

As she spoke, she trailed a finger along one wilted leaf of lettuce from her tray. She only wore one glove now, and inky darkness followed her unprotected touch - truly, fully black, darker even than rot. Finger-painting with shadows. Nikoletta glanced down at it, then crushed the leaf into her hand and watched the darkness overtake it. Anything organic would do the same. Save for her own skin, nothing was safe.

"C'mon, Nik, please-"

"Adrian." she hissed, "I cannot make exceptions. If you want him, go get him. But then you put yourself outside my jurisdiction. You go after the ones that I've marked, and those only, or you put your blood in the water. Your choice."

He sighed and lifted his hand to adjust his glasses, refusing to meet Nikoletta's eyes. He knew she was right.

"Could you at least... mark him when I'm close by?" he muttered a moment later, "Otherwise I can never get there in time."

A shout rang out just as he finished, and dozens of eyes snapped to the other side of the galley. Some stayed there. Others turned to Nikoletta, watching for her next move. It took her a moment to decode the situation.

"You just might get your wish..." she muttered, easily sliding out of her seat, "Stay close."

Adrian beamed and hopped up from the bench, disregarding his tray of food. He was smaller than most of the other guys in this joint, though that didn't matter. She'd seen him fight. He was ruthless. And casually ruthless too, which was almost worse. He enjoyed what he did. Even with no weapons, no powers, nothing to make him stand out, he was one of the more dangerous prisoners to be found in Belle Reve.

It was exactly why she'd kept him so close.

A fight had broken out in the far corner of the cafeteria. None of the guards were attempting to stop it- not yet. A dark-haired man lay sprawled on the linoleum, painted with his own spilled tray of food. He wore a power dampener around his neck, but he wasn't even attempting to fight. Standing over him... the man from her photo. The one Waller wanted gone.

"Excuse me, gentlemen." Nikoletta's voice rang out, drawing eyes from every corner of the cafeteria. It included the larger man, the new inmate. She gave him a false smile. "You're one of the new ones, aren't you?"

"Yeah. N'who're you?" he huffed, his voice so gravelly she expected him to cough up diamonds when he'd finished. Nikoletta's face held no emotion. Her eyes reflected no light, only pools of pure shadow.

"I'm the queen around here. You ought to stay quiet until you learn how I run things. Or I must say- it won't end well for you."

"Heh. I'd snap you like a twig."

Nikoletta tilted her head. She hadn't been in the mood for a public display... but these newbies would need to learn who she was. And the rest could use a reminder. This one would prove a good example.

"Try."

He didn't grant her so much as a moment. She didn't need one.

He charged for her, his broad frame filling her vision and casting her face in shadow. Perfect.

She didn't move so much as an inch, not until she saw his fist swinging for her. Then she melted into the shadows.

Nikoletta reappeared a step behind him, though his lost momentum spun him in a circle to face her once again. For just a moment, he was too dazed to react. That was all she needed.

Her fist swung out, clipping him in the jaw and sending him staggering back a step. She was too small a woman to topple him, but darkness burst across his jaw like he'd been struck with a paintball. Nikoletta took a calm step back as he reeled.

"I'll end this here. But you'll learn your place." she advised. The new inmate growled, promising danger. But she turned her back on him. Here in Belle Reve, her greatest asset was not her shadows. It was the army at her back.

"They outta put a collar on you too." the newbie snapped, though she heard no telltale footsteps of him advancing. Either her demonstration has succeeded, and he'd learned his place... or he'd just realized he was suddenly surrounded by threats.

"What do you think happened when they tried?"

She strode away from the man, her gloved hand clapping Adrian on the shoulder as she passed.

"All yours. Go nuts."

"With so many people-"

"Waller wanted him gone. Guards won't blink."

A slow grin spread across his face, deceptively bright and open for what she'd just promised him. He looked like a kid on Christmas, surveying the array of presents under the tree. Nikoletta found herself returning his smile, though hers was faint and didn't quite reach her eyes.

She approached the man on the floor. He was working his way up to his feet, struggling to get his balance with the heavy collar around his neck. She did not offer him a hand, but he shot her a grateful look all the same.

"Thank you." he mumbled. His voice was as meek as the rest of him. He wrung his hands in front of his body, his eyes darting from place to place. Once, they managed to jump all the way up to her face, and she saw that they were nearly as dark as her own. He moved to hold out a hand, then reconsidered. "I'm- um, I'm Abne-"

"Word of advice." Nikoletta cut him off, "No names. No stories. No powers. Don't stand out. For a guy like you, that's your best chance in this place."

"Oh- okay, I-"

"I mean it. Head down. Or they'll make you a target. Do you understand?"

He nodded just a hair too fast. Nikoletta all but ignored the motion, dark eyes flicking across his food-spattered jumpsuit and discarded tray. She did feel bad for him, in a way. It wasn't her first run-in with these meek types, and often the quietest proved to be the most dangerous in the end. People boasted about what they were proud of, but nobody broadcasted the truly awful deeds. Not if they wanted to last.

But there was something different about this one. She wondered what he'd done to end up here. She wondered what had driven him to tear STAR Labs up at the roots. She wondered why they put him in such a heavy power dampener.

She was sure she'd learn eventually.

Rumor traveled quickly in Belle Reve.