Back to Present

Dick and I sit on opposite sides of the aisle at the church in silence as he watches Rachel up ahead and I mess with the zipper of my leather jacket.

Dick stands causing me to snap my attention to him. He walks over to the bench Rachel is sitting on reading some book. Oh shit, is that the bible? Oh- should I not cuss in here?? That's frowned upon by these people isn't it?

"Rachel," He says breaking me from the debate in my head.

She shakes her head, looking up from her book, "I don't know what to do."

Dick looks over to me for a moment and I give him my 'I don't fucking know, don't look at me' look and shrug.

He sighs. "What set you off? Were you scared?" Well, that's a dumb question.

"Was I scared?" She repeats with an irritated tone. See? "I'm always scared." Oh, I thought she was gonna tell him off again, but that works too.

Dick exhales. "Listen, I need you to-"

"What?" Rachel loudly cuts him off. I bang my head down on the wooden bench in front of me. Why are these benches? Couches would be much more comfy. Maybe I should bang harder and knock myself right out of the conversation. "Trust you?" Rachel continues. "Other people can help, is that it?"

"Well, it's true isn't it?" I groan from my hunched position. I can just feel the 'not helping' stare from Dick.

"No, they can't," Rachel starts back up. "They'll just make promises... but in the end they'll fail. They'll all leave. Just like you."

Alright, I've had enough. I shoot up and walk over to join Dick. "Look kid, I've had enough of this pity party crap."

"Ali-" Dick goes to stop me.

"No! I mean for fucksake!" I'm definitely gonna get stuck by lightning by the time we leave here, "You've already apologized! What more does she want? Look Rachel we get it, trust me we do. Dick lies. He's a liar and he makes promises he can't keep. That good? That all? We caught up now? Good," I sigh and plop down once again.

Rachel just stares at me while Dick hangs his head, nodding.

"Yeah you're right. You both are," He says. Oh, come again? I look up at him taken aback.

"What?" Rachel asks, just as confused as I am. Dick takes a seat right smack beside me. Ugh I'm too annoyed and exhausted to even scoot down.

He turns so he look at Rachel. "You're on your own. No one can help you. Not really." He pauses. "I was just like you once. We both were," He refers to me. Yup, that's it, scooting down. "I thought if I leaned on someone, if I trusted them, all the pain would go away." Even though Dick is just referring to himself now, the little pins stabbing in my chest tell me otherwise. "I was wrong." Clearly. "And anyone that tells you any differently is lying." Now that actually wasn't a lie for once. "The loss is here for good now. There's no getting over it." Another pause. "But you can control it. You can channel it. No one else can do that for you. Just you."

Huh, and where have we heard that before? I thought his whole self-righteous, renewing mission was to get away from that. Or maybe just to get away from me, my voice rings in my head. I ball up my fist, squeezing so tight I can feel my nails retearing into the calloused skin. My chest bubbles up with vile anger and I can feel myself start to shake slightly. Fuck. I hate this.

Dick stands.

"I think I need to stay here for a while, okay?" Rachel tells him. Guess we're leaving then. I take a deep, rigid breath.

"Yeah. Sure," He says. "Alison?"

"Mmm," I nod, getting up to join him.

"Are you-" He starts quietly as we step out into the hall.

"Don't." I cut him off. He gives a curt nod as a nun approaches the room we just left.

"Oh, she needs a minute by herself," Dick tells her.

"God is with her," The woman replies with, sounding more eerily than comforting causing me to give her a look.

"Right," Dick says politely, thinking for a minute. "When she was a girl, did she ever show signs of any, um..." Oh my god, spit it out!

"Any, um... what?" The nun pushes.

I look at Dick, giving him a look telling him not to say anything. This lady gives me bad vibes.

"Nothing," Dick says. I sigh relief, he finally listened for once. His eyes widen as he hears a loud car engine rev. What the fuck is that... He hurries to the front of the church and I follow right behind him to find his car being sped out of the parking lot.

"Wha-" That magenta haired bitch stole his car! At least my motorcycle wasn't in it, I took it out to check it after we got here due to Rachel's screaming-glass incident. "Mmm, sucks to be you right about now," I let out a small chuckle.

He turns to me, not mad though, determined. "We're gonna get that bike to start." Then he takes off outside.

"Wait what!" I storm after him.

~~~

So the bike didn't start. Spark plug is blown out and the battery is old as shit. But Dick tracked her down instantly on his phone and the place she went wasn't very far. Oh, but in heels it is.

A couple miles later we come across a storage unit and quickly find the one that Magenta's in.

"Hey!" Dick yells at her. "You stole my car. I like my car," He complains.

"Almost as much as he likes himself," I cross my arms. "You're lucky my bike wasn't in there or we would be having real problems right about now," I snap.

"How did you find me?" The woman asks, narrowing her eyes. Bitch-

"There's an app for that," Dick says, holding up his phone before shoving it in his jacket. "This place yours?" He asks calmer, looking around.

I curl up my nose. It looks like a museum threw up in here. And not the good kind with expensive shit you can steal, the boring kind.

"Think so," The car-jacker replies.

"Cozy," I hum. Dick gives me a side-glance before moving his attention to something on the wall. I follow his line of vision and fine collages of pictures of Rachel... o-kay this is creepy now.

"How long you been looking for Rachel?" Dick asks her nonchalantly. Nonchalantly!

"A few months, I thought," Magenta hair says.

Dick looks at her a little freaked out. Finally he's getting on my level of STALKER.

"Seems like a lot longer than a few months," He retorts.

"You think?" Her voice drips with attitude.

"Yeah, don't you have a hobby?" I throw my hand up in question.

She just stares at me as Dick goes over to the bulletin board that has a bunch of papers, pictures, and a map with a red string connecting everything. Yeah, she def needs a hobby, or a life. This is some serial killer shit!!

Dick moves over to the pictures and drawings of a bird and starts snapping some pictures with his phone. Can we move this along? I'm feeling fries and a milkshake right about now. Ooo, make that a bourbon milkshake.... Alfred and I experimented one time when Bruce was gone on League business. Let's just say, he wasn't too happy with me when he got back to find Alfred passed out in the Batcave, me drunk off my ass, and his boxers all over the front yard in trees and the bushes. Ah, good times.

"This yours too?" Dick investigates, breaking me out of the memory. Magenta sighs. Did she ever tell us her name or am I just annoying myself for nothing? "What's that writing?" Dick points to a few antient looking papers with hieroglyphics on them.

"That's definitely code," I whisper.

The woman starts speaking in a completely different language. Woah, what the fuck?

"What does that mean?" Dick asks.

"I have no idea," She says in English.

I groan. "Ugh! We're wasting our time."

Dick holds up a hand at me, and I'm so close to breaking it before he asks, "Where did you say you were from again?" She didn't.

"I didn't," She answers. I narrow my eyes, see! Dick gives a quick nod then goes back to taking more pictures.

"Raven is the first species of birds to be mentioned in the Torah," The woman finally speaks again after a couple minutes of silence.

Haven't I seen a raven tattoo recently or have I just been sober for too long and now I'm starting to lose it?

"A man came after Rachel. He had a raven tattoo on his back," Dick tells her. Well, I'm never wrong.

The woman pauses and flips the sheet of papers she's holding. "Rachel's birthday..." She flips another page, "The mortality rate spikes every year on that same day." I feel my body tensing up, not liking where this is going. "Every since she was born over 200,000 additional dead worldwide." She looks over to the bible pages she has hung up, pulling off a small piece of paper under them and reads it in the same language she just used before. She looks like she's thinking really hard before she speaks again, in English this time. "I think she's part of a prophecy." Dick's eyes widen as his mouth opens in shock. Well, this wouldn't surprise me one bit after everything we've delt with her.

Before we can say anything else a huge explosion goes off. Dick quickly grabs my forearm as everything shakes all around us, and several books knock onto the floor. What the hell?!

The second it stops Dick and Magenta rush outside. I take a moment to breathe and collect myself before joining them.

"Woah," I find them looking at a big gush of smoke coming from behind the units... just in the direction of the church.

"Rachel," Dick confirms, sharing my thought.

A bunch of birds, scratch that- ravens, starting flying over us. I cover my hears cringing as they screech. Well great, more Rachel problems.

~~~

Author's Note: when he grabs her arm to steady her <3

FINALLY freaking finished with this episode! Omg I've been working on this since October. Took a very long break though and got busy with college and other book projects, you know how it goes. I was originally gonna post these chapters for Alison's bday but I didn't make the cut and I think I got discouraged and irritated so I took a break for a while lol.

But I'm so excited because now I can finally update for you guys andddd PUBLISH THE NEW COVER I MADE!! It's been done for a while, but I didn't want to reveal it until I had new chapters ready to go...

Anyways, sorry for the rambling. Until next time ;)