Innocent (A Treacherous Novel)

5

Gotham City, New Jersey
December 14, 2002

"You son of a bitch!" Dinah yelled as she stomped out of the boom tube and up the stairs of the Batcave. "Where is she?!" Dinah shrieked. "Where's my niece?" Dinah yelled.

"Miss Lance-" Alfred began.

"No formalities right now Alfred. I want Ashley right now" Dinah said.

"It wasn't me" Bruce said as he came into sight.

"You son of a bitch" Dinah said and punched him with as much force as she could muster. "Where is she?" Dinah demanded. Clark, Diana, Oliver, and Roy came into sight from the Batcave and Dick looked on in wonder at the heroes.

"What's going on?" Clark asked.

"They're not telling me where Ashley is!" Dinah shrieked.

"That's because I currently don't know where she is" Bruce said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Dinah yelled as jumped on him and began hitting him.

"Get off me!" Bruce yelled and went to throw her off of him.

"Don't put your hands on her!" Olive yelled at Bruce as he pried Dinah off.

"Is it always like this?" Dick asked Alfred.

"Not always, Master Grayson" Alfred assured.

"Just when she runs away?" Dick asked.

"This is the first time in three years that she has, it doesn't happen often" Alfred assured.

"You'll train when Ashley's home" Bruce said. "I'll go-" Bruce began before being interrupted by Dinah.

"I'll find her" Dinah said before looking to Clark and Diana. "Come with me?" Dinah asked. "She'll need people around her that she can fully trust while I put him in his place" Dinah said and folded her arms over her chest, looking every inch the aunt that Ashley looked up to in every sense of the word.

"They look too much alike" Clark sighed and nodded his head toward the door. "Come on, I'd like to get her before nightfall" Clark said to Dinah and Diana trailed after him with Dinah beside her.

♠️♠️♠️

Ashley didn't know what to think when she awoke in total darkness with nothing but the smell of dust, bone, and decomposed corpse to comfort her. "Well, this blows" Ashley said and peeked out the door of the mausoleum to see if there was any sign of life or movement outside. Out of nowhere, her stomach rumbled and she groaned. "Damn it" The ten-year-old muttered and debated her options as she left the testing place of her family. She started humming as she kept walking when she heard the soft padding of feet and turned to see Clark.

"Uncle Clark!" She said and hugged the man.

"Should I even ask what instigated this?" He asked her.

"It's a long story but I'm sure I could condense it down" Ashley said and rubbed her neck awkwardly.

"Please do" Clark said and took the hand she offered him as they walked out of the cemetery together.

"Well, I wanted to play something new that wasn't Chopin for my recital" Ashley began. "So Alfred started teaching me Scriabin, but really early in the morning, Dick stole the Porsche" Ashley continued and rolled her eyes as she thought about it. "It was very dramatic, even for me" She told the older man, who laughed. "So Dad came home and I guess told him about being him and wants to train both Dick and me, but I don't wanna train. I wanna play piano and basketball but since" Ashley looked around and made sure no one was listening. "But since I'm a Wayne I have higher expectations and this city that our ancestors built has become Dante's inferno, I have to be a bat to fix it so we can win the 'war'" She told Clark, using air quotations on the last word of her sentence before rolling her eyes.