An Assassin's Guide to Family

Chapter 25: Present

---------------Tim's POV: --------------

Tracking down Percy felt like trying to track down a bug in the manor. Frankly, it was too difficult, there were too many places to hide and not enough time in order to find her in one place.

It was frustrating. It was like she was right there but not actually.

I'd been working on this case for weeks, and through many sleepless nights, I'd been getting just about as much information as the media, which wasn't helpful in the slightest. One thing I was sure of, she was trained, way more than when she'd been with us. The league had to have had her for a while.

I would've still been working on this case if it hadn't been for Dick, who'd dragged me out of the cave much to my displeasure. With Jason out on his own with Bizarro and Artemis, and Bruce probably being with Selina, it had just been us in the manor for a while. Thus, he'd noticed when I hadn't left the cave for a while.

"Look, why have indoor coffee, when you could have coffee with a walk!" Dick said in his overly positive voice. I rolled my eyes as I sipped on my coffee, the sugar making my heart beat a bit faster than it should.

"Because Richard, my computer is at home. I need to be there in case an alarm goes off and Percy is seen." Dick sighed, looking to me with a lost look.

"Tim, I know this is rough, but we'll find her eventually, we found Jason, we can find her too."

I scoffed, shaking my head. "Jason found us, not the other way around. I mean, he practically- no, not even, he did try and kill you guys when he saw you first. I mean seriously, it's not like you sought him out!"

Dick pursed his lips. "My point still stands. Eventually, we got him back, so we will get her back."

I tried my best to ignore the fact that this wasn't necessarily true, but for the sake of my hope, I would listen to him. I let out a sad sigh, taking a small sip of my coffee.

"You know what? Maybe we can go to the base and see if anyone's used the computer to input any data on her." Dick tried, lightly tapping me with his elbow. He had a small smile on his face, his way of saying it'll be okay.

I nodded, putting on a small smile. "You're right. Let's go." We turned to walk to a zeta tube but in order to get there we needed to pass through a plaza, which was very crowded as people walked around the busy water fountain. In the middle of the plaza, behind the water fountain, was a stage getting set up. That must've been why the place was so crowded.

Dick grabbed onto my shoulder as we began pushing our way through the crowd. As I shoved by a couple of people we slowly began to make our way through the crowd. I could see an open spot near the middle of the plaza near the water fountain so I pulled us in that direction, ignoring the shuffling people all around us.

We popped out of the crowd with startling strength, the feeling of cold air against my skin suddenly something I hadn't realized I was so grateful for. Dick released me, taking in a deep breath before shivering from disgust.

"I forget how awful crowds are sometimes." I nodded, looking down at my coffee to find it happily in my hand.

"You ready for round two?" I asked with a smile, watching as horror regained its grip on Dick's face.

"Can't we wait a minute?" he asked, pointing to a bench. I shrugged, nodding.

"I'm down." With a nod we both walked over to the bench, taking a seat on the cool metal, the sound of running water loud from behind us.

Dick sat silently beside me, pulling out his phone to most likely text Wally for the 500th time today. I decided not to disturb him as I kept quiet, watching the crowd in front of me.

That was until two raven-haired people caught my eyes, especially the girl with the white streak. It looked a lot like Percy's photo. I felt my body lean forward, my body automatically kicking into overdrive as I began examining her. Unfortunately, she was turned away from us, looking down at something or someone. I stood up, feeling Dick's gaze turned to me but I paid him no mind. Then the girl turned and her side profile told me everything.

That was Percy.

I didn't dare turn my eyes away from her as I reached back, slapping Dick on the shoulder.

"Dick! It's Percy! She's right there!" He was on his feet immediately, following my gaze until eventually he saw her.

"Come on! We gotta catch her!" He yelled, the two of us bolting off into the crowd. It wasn't more than a few seconds before I'd lost him to the crowd, and with my body getting jostled around, it was getting harder and harder to keep them in sight. I could see now that she was traveling with a small boy, a small smile on his face as he looked up at her. It was strange to see.

"Percy!!" I yelled, they didn't look back, it wasn't hard to guess that she couldn't hear us above the loud sounds of the tuning of the instruments and the people talking and yelling. I pushed past a group of teens, not caring about their protests as I looked back to see the two again I found the kid looking directly at me with no sign of Percy. I felt my heart drop instantly as I realized Percy was nowhere to be seen, but even as I tried to get to the kid, someone walked in front of me, and suddenly he was gone. I felt my mouth dry up as I called out for her again, finding no one who responded, forget even looking this way. I turned to see Dick also yelling, he hadn't made it much further than I had. Our eyes met as he turned this way and I could tell by the look on his face what had happened.

We met up on the edge of the Plaza, neither of us saying a word as we walked to the zeta tube entrance. We had no words, only disappointment.

One thing was for sure though, Percy was alive, and she was in Gotham. Dick was right, one way, or another, we were going to get Percy back.

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