"Everything you need is already inside of you." 

Elena Sonnino

Much to Dicks horror and attempted persuasion Persephone had left the group. When Dick had threatened to trade the Porscha for a minivan, Persephone had told him a minivan was a fantastic idea, but he wasn't getting rid of the Porscha. She had looked up Brucas database where the nearest safe house was, Chicago. So Persephone had left Dick to go to Chicago and drop the Porscha off.

When she got to Chicago, she pulled up to the towering condo and drove into the parking section. Getting out, she could see it had a sheer glass wall connecting it to the entryway where she could see an elevator. Thankfully, as Bruce promised, she could see one of his state of the art motorbike in one corner. Persephone smiled; bounding over to the motorbike, she looked over the shelf behind it to find the helmet over her name, which she grabbed and jumped onto the motorbike. She sent Dick a text to tell him that she was leaving and synced her phone to the helmet. Persephone revved the engine and set off back to her worried husband. She had sent Dick her live location when she set off to know where she was the whole way. This also meant that it was no great surprise when she got a text from Dick when she was 10 minutes from the awful Motel that they were staying at asking what pizza she wanted. She had laughed before sending them a text asking for her usual.

Now anybody could tell you how much Dicks face lit up when they heard the sound of a motorbike engine coming into the Motel. Before anybody could get a word in edgeways, Dick was already out the door and into the parking lot.

The others followed out after him in time to see Persephone swinging of a motorbike and being pulled into Dicks arms. Before he then dragged her back to the room that they had all been in previously looking over his shoulder, Dick had told Persephone, "I made sure that there was on pizza left for you" Persephone thanked him.

When they made it back up to the room that Dick and Persephone were going to be staying in, Persephone grabbed the unopened box of pizza and sat on the bed eating it."All right, guys, listen up." Dick told them from where he was standing at the front of the room, "We're all in one piece, more or less. We need to figure out where we stand and determine what's mission-critical."

""Mission-critical"?" Rachel said, laughing at Dicks habits.

"Is that a cop thing?" Gar asked, sounding confused, "sounds like a cop thing."

"I had some combat training when I was younger," Dick said, avoiding the question. Persephone just laughed. If what Bruce had put them through counted as 'some', she didn't want to know what full training was. Dick just gave her a look to tell her that she wasn't helping.

"And he's a cop." Rachel conspiringly whispered to Gar after Persephone had stopped chuckling at Dick.

"I'm sorry, you were referring to "we"?" Kory interjected from where she was leaning on the doorpost. "You and Persephone, yes. Me and you less so."

"'We' as of right now are a group of people who share a common enemy," Dick said, trying to bring Kory to his side of things.

"Which makes us what?" Kory asked. She still wasn't sure how much she could trust Dick.

"Let's call it an alliance." Dick said that Persephone just put her head in her hands, she loved Dick, but he wasn't always the easiest person to warm up to, "one born of mutual need."

"And what is that?" Kory asked. She didn't get what these people could do to help her.

"To stay alive." Dick said, full of conviction, "We have no idea how long we have until they find us."

"Love", Persephone piped up, "try not scaring the kids too much."

"You just said "they." Who are they?" It was too late for Persephone's comment. Dick had worried Gar, who was now doing rapid-fire questions, "What do they want?"

"We don't know who they are," Rachel explained, "but they want me."

"It's because of her... " Dick started before trailing off.

"abilities", Persephone finished for him.

"They make violence look like an art form." Kory Siad, in an admiring tone, Persephone sent her a look.

"The people that attacked us fought in unison. They were perfectly coordinated; we're not." Dick told the group. Persephone smiled; she knew where he was going. "We can't fight like that unless we learn each other's moves."

"Inspiring." Kory said sarcastically, "And how do you suggest we do that?"

"We stick together, and we train," Dick said, knowing that he had got them round to his side.

"Perfect," Persephone cheered. "I saw a barn on my way here, so let's head there to train."

✯🌻✯

Dick was standing in front of the others. "Okay, to work together, fight and defend yourselves like a coordinated team, we gotta see what each other can do. Any volunteers?"

Persephone raised her hand, "I'm more than willing to go first if it makes everybody feel better."

Dick nodded at her. Persephone took his place; closing her eyes, she channelled into nature. She took a deep breath, and the barn exploded onto growth. The floor was a carpet of flowers. They then started to climb up the walls and over the ceiling until all available surfaces were covered in flowers of all shapes, sizes, colours and varieties. They then came down from the ceiling to grow flowers crowns on everybody's heads. What they hadn't realised as they were so caught up in the flowers was that Persephone had robbed them blind. She was currently stuffing all of their stuff into Dicks pockets while muttering about the gender inequality of pockets. Dick knew this was going on and was trying not to laugh at Persephone, who motioned him to turn round so she could get his other pocket. She then dashed back to where she was previously standing, just as Persephone did the flower crows. The others turned round to look at her in awe. Dick looked at her with a face beaming in pride. His expression screamed, 'that's my wife! Isn't she amazing? I'm the luckiest man in the world'.

"That was amazing. How could you do that? You are so cool," Gar started gushing.

"Wait, is that my necklace," Kory interrupted him to ask.

"That was the second part of the show", Persephone laughed. "You might want to check your pockets!"

As so they did, they started going through their pockets to find that everything was missing.

"I'm happy to give them back though" Persephone laughed as she and Dick gave everyone their stuff back.

"So how come you can..." Rachel started.

"My Mums are Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy so that explains the powers, and the fact that I can fight", Persephone explained, "and one of my godparents is Catwoman hence the fact that I could rob you blind!"

"How about you go next," Dick suggested after Kory had finished putting all her stuff back. "Rachel said you could create light. Heat. Is that right?"

"Honestly," Kory felt like trusting them more after what Persephone had shown and told them, "I'm still trying to figure it out."

"We can figure it out together," Persephone said, smiling widely at Kory.

"How exactly does it work?" Dick then asked, trying to work out what he was getting himself in for.

" I think it comes from the sun." Kory told them she didn't sound full convinced herself, "I can absorb its power and direct it. I'm weaker at night, though. I'm sometimes empty. And it takes me a while to recharge."

"How long?" Was Dicks immediate question.

" A few hours, a day," Kory tried to answer Dicks question, but they could tell that they were getting to the end of what she remembered, "I don't know."

"Can you control it?" Dick asked. He didn't want to put anyone at risk.

"Of course," Kory told him, full of confidence and almost offended that Dick didn't trust her.

"Okay," Dick told her, trying to convey that he believed her. "Could you hit that tractor?"

"Watch", Kory said, strutting forwards full of confidence. Dick went back to in-line with the others. He made sure that his shoulder was just in front of Persephone in case anything went wrong. Kory took a deep breath as her skin and hair lit up as if the sun was under her skin. When she exhaled, she put her hand forwards, and a stream of fire came out of her hand and went just past the tractor. A hay bale caught fire as Kory burnt a hole through it. Dick threw a hand out in front of Persephone to protect her as the others looked stunned. Kort turned to look back at them. "I suppose I could use a bit of practice."

"Sick!" Gar shouted as Kory came back. He put his hand up for a high five, to which Kory hit his hand with are burning palm.

"Do you want some aloe vera?" Persephone jumped into action. Gar just shook his head at her as he rubbed his hand.

"Your turn," Dick told Gar.

"Okay, I just, uh... Give me a second," Gar walked up to where they were showing off their powers. He started shuffling around and trying to hype himself up.

"Any time today would be good," Dick told Gar reproachfully. Persephone just elbowed him in the ribs, looking disproving. Dick looked down at her with a mock look of pain and betrayal.

"It's, uh... I can't. It's a little weird with you guys watching and all." Gar nervously chuckled. He was embarrassed. "The first time I transformed, I tore through my clothes and, uh... Oh, and, like, this is my favourite jacket."

"Hold on," Dick said, confused and worried ", You have to be naked to... "

"Yeah, but it'll be worth it." Gar said, trying to defend himself, "I promise."

"Heard that before." Kory joked.

"Can't relate", Persephone joked, grabbing Dicks arm to pull him around "it's always been this guy for me."

"Just, uh, turn around. " Gar asked again. They all agreed. Some more begrudgingly than others.

"So it's always been me, has it" Dick whispered down to Persephone lovingly before kissing her.

"If this wasn't a drill," Kory said, interrupting the couple moment ", we'd all be dead right now."

Gars only reply was to grow very loudly. Causing them all to turn round. Upon seeing the tiger stalking towards them, Dick whispers, "Oh, shit", as he threw himself in front of Persephone. The green tiger stopped coming towards them and instead juped up the bales of hay and growing loudly again.

"What do you know," Kory chuckled ", it was worth it."

"That's him?" Dick said, disbelieving he was still making sure that Persephone was safely behind him.

"I know, right?" Persephone said from behind Dick, "it is impressive."

"How?" Dick had never seen anything like this.

"Got sick or something," Rachel told them, not doing justice to the story.

"The flu turned him into a tiger?" Kory asked flippantly.

"It was the cure", Persephone started to explain. "The cure means that he can edit, rearrange and change his DNA. Or at least that is the current favourite theory."

"Okay," Dick nodded. Persephone had made sense, but that didn't make him feel any better "you can turn back now. Into Gar."

The tiger who had hunched down in the middle seemed to be in pain as you could hear the nones cracking and shifting. Persephone realising that Garhad forgot that he would be naked, put a hand in front of Rachel's eyes and her other hand in front of hers. When Gar had finished, Persephone heard him exhale and then go "Ta-da!"

"Gar", Persephone said pointedly ", Clothes!"

Gar chuckled sheepishly. "I, uh... I forgot."

When Persephone hear Gar, she took her hand down from her face. When she checked and couldn't see him anymore, she took her hand from in front of Rachel's face down.

"So have you eaten anyone before?" It was unsurprisingly Dicks first question when Gar reappeared fully clothed.

""Eaten"? No. Dude," Gar chuckled, not understanding how serious Dick was," I haven't even bitten anyone before. 'Eaten anyone.'"

"Be a lot scarier if he wasn't green." Kory added, "Or vegan."

"Hey, what's wrong with green?" Persephone questioned.

"Okay, so we have sun woman and tiger boy." Dick nodded, things were looking up, and no, he wasn't going to give his wife a nickname. "There's potential here."

"Rachel, you're next" Gar was excited to see what Rachel powers were. He had seen but a small fraction earlier.

"No. No, I could hurt someone," Rachel immediately denied.

"Hurting people is the idea here," Kory snorted.

"Rachel, you need to control it, not the other way around," Persephone told her calmly. "If you bottle it up and won't learn to control it in a safe environment, then when you do need to use it, it may go wrong. Let us help you."

"I could hurt one of you," Rachel murmured.

"It's a part of you," Dick told her. He was taking the same route as his wife "You gotta stop being afraid of it."

"If something goes wrong," Rachel tried as a last-ditch attempt to persuade them, agents, this. "You can do this," Dick assured.

"And if anything goes wrong, Kory and I are here", Persephone reassured Rachel.

Rachel went to stand, so her back was facing them. Dick carefully placed himself so that his whole body was in front of Persephone. She had to stand on her toes to see over his shoulder. He had seen Rachel's powers in action. Rachel put her hands flat on either side of her body and took a deep breath. When she breathed out, a mass of black goo came spilling out of her mouth as she raised her arms.

"Rachel?" Persephone called softly, worried about the girl in front of her.

"Okay, bring it back in," Dick called. He was getting concerned now, "Rachel."

He didn't get a reply. Instead, the black mass headed towards Rachel. When she ducked, it carried on, heading towards them. Kory stepped forwards and blasted it with her powers. Thanks to Persephone's earlier demonstration, the ground was a soft carpet of flowers. They all looked up to see the ink retreating into Rachel.

"Rachel!" both Dick and Persephone said, jumping to their feet.

"Stay back," the distorted voice of Rachel instructed them. After a second, her arms came back to her side. "I'm fine," she assured them in her normal voice.

"You sure?" Persephone checked, her mothering instincts coming out.

"Did I hurt you?" Kory was worried because she doesn't want to have hurt the girl and partly because she was scared of the wrath of Persephone.

"I just... I just need a little more practice, that's all." Rachel assured the group shakily.

"that's fine little flower, ' a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step'," Persephone assured Rachel.

"So, uh... we all did our thing. What's your thing, man?" Gar asked, genuinely intrigued by this man who seemed so powerful and was married to a powerful woman. He wants to know what he is bringing to the table.

"I can keep you alive." was all Dick told them. Persephone elbowed him in the ribs gently, so he looked down at her. Her eyes told him she understood he liked to be mysterious, but maybe he took it a little bit too far.

✯🌻✯

"How were Kory and Rachel?" Persephone asked Dick as he came in. Persephone was sitting o the double bed they were sharing, reading her book.

"Kory was asking personal questions, and Rachel is worried about her powers," Dick told her, flopping on the bed at her feet.

"That's fine. We can face those together tomorrow," Persephone assured him, "For now, how about we have a shower?"

Dick just raised his eyebrows at her. "What about the kids?"

"Hence the reason we are doing it in the shower", Persephone wriggled her eyebrows at him, "Something tells me we both have a lot of pent up emotions and need to de-stress and be intimate with each other."

✯🌻✯

When the two had finished and were about to fall asleep in each other's embrace, what they didn't expect was some knocking.

"I'll go check it out", Dick assures Persephone rubbing her exposed shoulder lovingly.

So Dick quickly put on a dressing gown and opened the door. What he was expecting was a member of their party. What he was not expecting was the motel owner.

"I got the ice machine working." She told a perplexed Dick, "Wine's on the house. So is the company."

Persephone could hear Dick nervously chuckle and put the pieces together. "You okay, darling?" She called out to Dick, "Whos at the door?"

The motel owners face was priceless. She could suddenly realise that she had completely misread his intentions.

"It's okay, love", Dick called back "the motel owner just wanted to check if we were okay and if there was anything we needed."

The lady practically ran away. Dick closed the door and turned round to Persephone, who had an expectant look on her face "what was all about" She asked.

"I think somehow when I picked up the keys, I led her on by accident," Dick told her, walking towards the bed starting to get dressed. "I don't know-how, though. I was thinking about you the whole time. I think the others were getting sick of it!"

"I'm not upset, Darling, don't worry", Persephone chuckled. "Why the clothes?"

"I'm going to do a last check of the perimeter."

"You head out. I will join you when. I get dressed."

Dick ended up waiter for her. When she had just pulled her boots on, Dick opened the door. What Persephone hadn't been expecting was him to be flung back into the room. The psycho parents following him. Persephone immediately leapt into action, taking on the mom while Dick took on the dad.

They were both just about holding their own spinning, kicking and punching when Dick was thrown into Persephone's back. They both went crashing to the floor by the window. With one final push, the parents threw them out. Thanks to all Dick's circus training, he managed to get under Persephone, meaning she landed on his front.

"I have our suits," Dikc told her triumphantly.

"Well, let's go get changed then."

"But you wanted to stop" Dick didn't want her to do something agents her will, "I thought you didn't want to put it back on?"

"That's what I thought until someone hurt my family," Persephone told him, her voice filled with venom.

So the two of them quickly got their suits out and pulled them on.

They were ready just in time to see everybody come out into the parking lot. Dick turned to Persephone, giving her one last out. Persephone just nodded her head; she was ready. Dick pulled a smoke boom from his arsenal and threw it towards the parents. When it had obscured just enough, Persephone pulled one of her vines from around her arm and sued it to wrap around the dads head and pull him backwards.

Dick then leapt over the car while Persephone stood on the bonnet. When the smoke had cleared, they could hear Rachel soft call their names.

"That's Robin and Nightshade," Persephone hear Gar mutter in complete awe.

The others were amazed at how well the couple worked together, Persephone restraining them so that Dick could hit them and take them out with his staff. That amazement turned to worry and caution when Dick hit the mom in the head with an R just for her to pull it out.

"You should put your toys away when you're finished with them," the mom told them as she threw the lethal weapon to the side.

Thankfully Gar took this as his incentive to transform. Rachel also joined the fray seeming in perfect control of her powers. Before too long, they had knocked all of the family down. The mom finally stood up to see them all standing in front of her. Not hurt at all, she dropped her weapon.

"Well... look at the mess we've made." mom told them as she dropped her weapon.

They quickly grabbed the family and led them inside were tied to some chairs, first with Dick metal cabling and second with Persephone's vines.

"Who are you, people?" Dick interrogated form behind the parents, "And why are you looking for Rachel?"

"Oh, dear, you're right. How rude of us to not introduce ourselves." the mom said in a sickly sweet voice.

"I'm Dad. This is Mom." the dad introduced. "We're pleased to meet you, Detective Grayson."

"And what a nice bird suit that you have if I do say so myself." The mom went on. They didn't seem fazed by their predicament "that was quite unexpected."

"Quite," Dick instructed, trying to keep control of the situation, "I asked her a question."

"Yes, you did. My apologies. All the fighting..." The mom apologised, for one precious second, Persephone thought they might divulge it "to deliver her, of course."

Dick was getting frustrated, "To who?"

"Why, our employer, dear," the mom repeated.

"Who's your employer?" Dick tried again.

"I can't answer that," The mom seemed angry for a second before going back to sweet "Loose lips sink ships."

"That's true. Nobody likes a tattletale," the dad agreed.

"Okay, it's my turn," Kory instructed, marching forwards to put a cord around the dad's neck.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait! Come here," Dick shouted, grabbing onto Kory.

"The way they're reacting," Dick whispered to Kory and Persephone, "I've seen this behaviour before back in Gotham."

"They're brainwashed," Persephone murmured.

"Beating the shit out of them isn't gonna make a difference," Dick told Kory.

"Okay, so now what?" Kory asked him, peeved that this wasn't working.

"Help yourselves. Give us the girl." The mom grind, "And we'll be on our way, lickety-split."

"I'm going to check their car, see what I find," Persephone muttered towards the door. Dick nodded and followed her.

"Well, that's not creepy at all", Persephone complained. Dick just chuckled.

When they got to the car, Dick lent in the driver's door and opened the middle console. He then pulled out a satnav. Leaning the screen so Persephone could see, he looked at the previous destinations. 'Dr. Adamson' seemed most promising.

They both turned at the sound of someone approaching.

"So you're Robin, huh?" Rachel mused. "That's your big secret? I'm not surprised about Persephone. She trusted use enough to show use her powers and form there you could work it out."

"I was gonna tell you," Dick promised. "Look, when I was in Detroit, I was planning on leaving Robin behind."

"No luck, huh?" Rachel mused.

"You would be surprised," Persephone commented, "he told me he had stopped that it was done he had finished. Then one day he came home in the suit."

"Why?" That was all Rachel asked.

"When I put on that mask... When I put it on, I become someone I can't control." Dick answered Rachel with complete trust and truth. Persephone laid her hand on his arm to let him know she was with him, "Someone that likes hurting people."

"I know the feeling," Rachel murmured thoughtfully, looking into the distance.

"We know you do," Persephone reassured the girl.

Gar chose this as his moment to come forwards "so, uh, Batman..." Gar asked quietly, "you both know him?"

"Of course they know Batman," Rachel snorted.

"Are we gonna see him?" Gar asked him nervously, "Uh... I'd really like to meet Batman."

"No, you're not," Dick told him firmly.

"They had a rough breakup," Persephone stage whispered. Dick just rolled his eyes at her.

"Any luck?" Kory asked them as she came forwards.

"I'm gonna find out who's running this freak show," Dick assured him as he was about to get in the car.

"Yeah, I'll come with you," Kory told Dick, "Persephone can look after the kids."

"They'll kill any cops who try to handle them," Dick warned Kory.

"Oh, I know what to do with them, all right," Kory muttered extremely sadistically.

"Kory, no killing. Please." Dick request off Kory, "There's been enough."

"I thought we weren't splitting up," Rachel breathed, worried the last time Dick had left her, she was drugged.

"I'm coming back," Dick assured her. Dick then turned to his wife, "Keep sage, keep them safe. I love you," he then leant down to kiss her.

"I will. I love you," Persephone assured him, giving him one last kiss, "be safe."

Dick climbed into the car and drove off.

"Let's all go to bed now," Persephone suggested "we have had a hectic couple of days," and with that, she disappeared back to the Motel.