𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐑𝐄 , nightwing

028 surfacing.

"𝐖𝐇𝐎'𝐒 Angela?" Kory furrowed her brows in thought, playing carefree cop to Dick's brutally aggressive cop. She continued to lean on the wall, toying with something in her hands.

She finally leaned off the wall and approached him, still pinned against the glass, her whole demeanour reading the assertive one now despite Dick's persistent aggression. "You said she couldn't keep Rachel from him. Who is Angela?"

Dick applied more pressure but the man's gaze only hardened, despite the two's best efforts. I was growing tired of staring at the same four tiles on the floor, their shape, form and pattern all engraved in my memory forever.

While I'm sure they could eventually get him to talk, Dick had a moral code despite the lengths of aggression he was reaching currently. As for Kory, she seemed to also have some moral values where she didn't want to harm unless necessary, however despite being more lenient, I knew she'd hesitate to finally get to that point, and even so, Dick would be even more adamant.

Besides, how long was that going to take? They had their turns, I wanted to try, I was sick of side-lining. Sighing and stepping up, I slid to face the man through the glass he was pressed up against, seeing his oily pores pushed up smothered against the now dirtier pane.

I gently pressed my finger tips on the glass, each finger touching igniting like a cold burning in my veins as I felt my eyes similarly light up aflame. While Dick and Kory stayed in my peripheral, not entirely focused on what they viewed of me, the man before me seemed suddenly alert, his eyes widening and a flickering feared smile of disbelief pressed against the glass. Something amongst the pure terror read in his eyes.

Then as I watched my surroundings slip into black, his eyes rolling into the back of his head was the last thing I saw. He stood there, now alone in this darkness, frozen in the icy flame, shivering and sweating in the burning agony, however so much frozen that he wouldn't dare move his mouth of lungs to scream. His eyes did all the telling his mouth couldn't.

"Rachel's father. There's something you're not telling us. With a daughter as powerful as she is, I doubt he is merely just a father seeking her out - having this worshipping cult and resorting to such means of violence." My head gestured to the side as my lips twitched. "Don't try to speak, you won't tell me. You're going to show me."

Something in his mind tugged at me, and my body responded like second nature. I felt my grasp lock onto his mind as images flickered, of this malicious-looking man, something extremely off about him despite his normal human appearance. Next to him stood a woman cradling a baby with jet black hair, recognisably pale skin, it wasn't hard to piece together.

A strange collection of visions then flickered, too fast to note them all, but I recognised the church, the assassin family, but notably - something new, a giant muscular, almost inhuman figure, just for a moment. It must've been some collection of moments regarding Rachel's father, his attempts at her back.

'And Angela?' I felt my mind gesture to the visions, to guide them to another answer now I knew of Rachel's father's face. However this time, the visions merely lingered on the woman cradling the baby. Even more so, closing in on her face and gentle hold of Rachel, a soft smile, a typical endearing loving stare. Oh.

I blinked back to the bathroom as Dick glared at me in confusion, still holding the man tightly against the glass pane as he broke out in a trembling voice, his eyes never leaving me, unwavering in some deeper interest. "Angela.. is her mother."

"Now we're getting somewhere." Kory let her shoulders relax slightly, "Let's talk about Angela." Dick continue to apply pressure. While the two of them kept up the facade in front of the outside before us, I could read them well already. Kory's shoulders had tensed immensely since I... slipped away for a moment, her body shifting closer, possibly even to check on me while I was unaware.