Nightwing dropped through the window silently and rolled to a crouch behind a nearby armchair. When he counted to ten and didn't hear any noise, he peeked around the corner to scan the room. No heat signatures. He switched his lenses back to night vision.

"What do you see?" Red Robin asked through his comm.

Nightwing stood, confident he was alone inside, and strolled past aisle after aisle of bookshelves. "Three guesses." Then he stopped abruptly. "Oh my gosh."

Red Robin froze, one foot inside a window on the opposite side of the library. "What is it?"

"It's Jason!" Nightwing picked up the book that had caught his eye. It was a romance, if the flowers and the way the woman was draped over the man was anything to go by. "He has the leather jacket and bike and everything! You've got to see this."

"Nightwing, focus."

"Right." Nightwing started to set the book on the shelf, then thought better of it and carried it to the cart at the end of the aisle. "Oracle said the break-ins have been happening back toward the children's wing. We should check there, first."

"I'm in. I'll meet you there."

Nightwing skimmed his gloved fingers over the shelves as he cut through an aisle into the heart of the Gotham City Public Library. At its center, the floor fell away to a grand atrium. The first time he had come as Dick Grayson, he had nearly run into one of the many long tables in the center while staring at the skylights six floors up.

He caught sight of movement across the balcony, and gave Red Robin a wave.

Red Robin nodded back—he had been more reserved since shedding the Robin mantle. "Children's wing?" The boy hadn't been much of a reader as a kid. At least, not the kind who would frequent the library.

Fortunately, Dick had. "First floor." With a grin, Nightwing shot off his grapple line into one of the beams on the ceiling and vaulted over the balcony. He swung down until his feet skimmed one of the long tables and somersaulted to a stop. Then he glanced up. "Come on, slow poke," he tossed over his shoulder.

Red Robin, ever the sensible one, trotted down the last few steps of the grand stairway.

Side by side, they crept toward the children's wing. Nightwing gave a low whistle when they passed over the "drawbridge" serving as entrance. The wing was decorated like a castle, complete with spiral stairways, a small indoor garden, and shelf upon waist-high shelf stuffed with books.

But it looked as though a tornado had hit. Every window pane had shattered, leaving glistening shards inside and out. The windows had been hastily covered with thick sheets of plastic that bulged inward under the pressure of the cold air. All of the books from the aisles nearest the window were strewn through the floor haphazardly, the paper butterflies normally strung from the ceiling crushed beneath them.

Red Robin bent to pick up the nearest one, and was surprised when Nightwing suddenly dropped to a crouch beside him, a hand on his back guiding him lower to the floor so they wouldn't be seen over the toddler-sized bookshelves. Finger to his lips, he subtly tilted his head toward the window.

There was the silhouette of a figure a few feet outside the plastic, rising from a crouch. It was hard to judge size or shape of the body warped as it was against the plastic, but there was no mistaking the shape of a gun when it was held up in preparation of fire. Nightwing's hand tensed on Red Robin's back, and Red Robin reached for a smoke pellet.

The bullet didn't come. A knife made quick work of shredding the plastic, and the figure stepped through, revealing a leather jacket, combat boots, and a red helmet. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," the synthesized voice sing-songed.

"Red Hood," Nightwing said, cautiously rising from his crouch.

It was clear through the tilt of the helmet that the Red Hood was rolling his eyes. He dropped his gun back into its holster and sighed. "Goldie. What are you doing here?"

Red Robin popped up next to Nightwing. "We could ask you the same."

Hood scoffed. "Word on the street is somebody's messing with the kids at the library."

Nightwing cocked his head to the side. "The break-ins have been at night. Nobody has been here when it happened."

"Yeah, but why would somebody mess with a bunch of children's books? None of them are missing or damaged, but somebody is deliberately trashing the area."

"So what, you think it's drugs?"

"I didn't say that." Hood stooped down to pick up one of the books and flipped through the pages, checking the seams for anything suspicious. "But I'm not about to rule it out before investigating."

They scanned each book slowly and methodically, careful not to displace any evidence. The books, true to what Oracle had reported, were in perfect condition. Well, as perfect condition as children's library books could be. Nightwing blew some dried cereal crumbs from the spine of Stellaluna before reverently putting it back in its place on the bookshelf.

Red Robin was the first to break the easy silence they had been sharing. "You know what's weird?"

Jason grunted, snapping a cardboard book closed with a flourish. "We're adults who broke into the children's wing of a public library to read books for preschoolers?"

Red Robin didn't even blink. "All of these books are about the same thing."

Nightwing and Red Hood gave him a look, but it was Jason who responded. "Uh, duh."

"No, they all have animals in them." He held open The Tale of Peter Rabbit. "Small animals, like rodents or birds."

They looked down at the books scattered across the floor, and he was right. Animals were featured prominently on all the covers.

"It could be a coincidence," Nightwing started. "A lot of children's books have animals in them."

"We're bats, and this is Gotham. It's not a coincidence."

Red Hood snorted. "So we're looking for a criminal who likes stories about critters. You think we're looking for a furry?"

"I don't know what it means," Red Robin shot back. "Yet," he added, punctuating it by pulling another book open more forcefully than necessary.

The three vigilantes spent nearly an hour like that, examining the books that had been pulled from their shelves. Nightwing was the first to admit defeat, "If I read one more book about visiting a zoo I'll know more than Robin. I don't think it's the books, Hood."

Red Hood's helmet let out a mechanized grunt as the man rose back to standing. "I hate to agree with you, but." He ended the sentence there by placing the book he had been holding back on the shelf.

"We should check the rest of the stuff here," Red Robin suggested.

Jason sniggered, "You want to play with the blocks?"

Nightwing smirked. "I don't see any, Hood. What are you talking about?"

Jason huffed and strode toward the opposite corner of the children's section, Nightwing and Red Robin following closely. There were soft foam mats coating the floor here, and a small corner held a stand of puppets, a block station, and soft pillows and blankets for creating a reading space. The entire area was in a similar state as the book shelves, but further examination found nothing more interesting than a few boogers and stale cereal pieces.

With samples collected from the surfaces of the doors, the spines of a few books, and the windows, the vigilantes decided to look at the security footage from the night before. The security room was across the library, so they picked their way through the mess in the children's wing and followed Red Hood through a "shortcut" through the adult fiction.

There was a loud bang from one of the shelves, as though a book had spontaneously decided to go skydiving. Hood pulled up short, and it was only Bat-reflexes that kept Nightwing and Red Robin from tumbling over him. He held a finger over the mouth area of his helmet, a signal both unnecessary and ridiculous. They waited a beat, ears straining for a follow-up noise of some sort. When none came, Nightwing sent Red Hood to the left of the nearest bookshelf. He and Red Robin crept toward the aisle from the right.

Red Robin flipped through the different lenses of his cowl, looking for a heat signature or some clue as to what they were up against. He found nothing, until the newest, experimental lens picked up a haze of elevated micro-vacillations coming from the direction of the aisle. He put a hand out to pull Nightwing back by his shoulder, but before he could make contact, a cloud of dust and violent wind rushed past them.

Red Hood sidestepped into the aisle, and Nightwing and Red Robin took cover also. The wind lost all of its momentum before it reached the children's section a few yards back.

Nightwing's fingers were pressed to his temple, no doubt looking for the same things as Red Robin had been. He dropped his hand with a humph. "There's nobody there," he whispered.

"What was that," Red Hood asked, not bothering to lower his voice.

Nightwing's nose twitched, and he sneezed. "Smells like lavender," he noted.

"I think it's magic," Red Robin said. He was looking through his experimental filter again, but it wasn't picking up anything out of the ordinary.

Red Hood snorted. "You think?"

"My new filter is able to pick up changes in the micro-vacillations of—"

"Full offense, but it caused wind where there wasn't before. Pretty obvious." Hood pulled a gun out and clicked the safety off. "Your fancy filter able to tell if it can be shot?"

"That won't be necessary, dear."

Without hesitation, Jason flipped around and pointed his gun at the speaker. "Who are you?" Nightwing and Red Robin's hands flew to where they stored their own weapons. They were caught off-guard by the sight of a round woman with bright white hair pulled back into a messy bun. Delicate half-moon glasses sat on the bridge of her freckly nose.

And she was floating, about an inch off the ground.

The woman pouted, but otherwise made no move to defend herself. "You don't know me?"

The brothers exchanged glances. "No?"

She sighed, raising her gaze to the ceiling. "Kids these days. Don't read anymore. Technology is ruining their brains." Then crossing her arms, "Doesn't matter. Have you seen my cat?"

"Oh my god," Red Hood said. His gun dropped back to his side.

"Language, dear!"

"You're the book lady."

She hummed through a smile. "You must be one of our castle knights!" As she said it, she twirled a hand in the air and nodded sagely. "Pleasure to meet you again, young sir."

Nightwing and Red Robin gave him sideways looks. Red Hood was still, his appreciation for his helmet increasing with each second he could feel a flush creeping up his cheeks. Nightwing coughed, and Red Hood explained, "The reading program." He cocked his head in the lady's direction. "She's the one who helped kids check out books."

The woman floated closer to him, hovering to where she was about eye-level with the helmet. "You remember Percival? My cat?"

"Uh, yes? White, fluffy?"

She clapped her hands together. "Yes yes yes, that's him. You can say 'fat' dear, he is unashamed of his lifestyle."

"Okay—"

"Well, I need your help to find him." With that, she turned around and pulled a book off the shelf.

There was a moment's pause, the bats trying to make sense of the situation. Nightwing looked like he was ready to escort her to a nursing facility.

When she turned back around and saw that nobody had moved, she threw the book down in disgust. "Get to reading! We haven't got all night!" She pulled several books from the shelves and tossed them over her shoulders to the three boys. Nightwing and Red Robin dodged like startled cats avoiding hose water.

Jason caught his with a grunt. "Wouldn't your cat be, like, thirty now? If he's disappeared, it's because he's dead."

Red Robin gave him a reproachful look.

The lady floated back around slowly, tapping a finger on the spine of the book in her hand. "You do have a point," she said. "But time works differently inside the stories, so I'm not sure if he's physically thirty years old yet. He's a big fan of the Redwall series, you know." She winked at Jason. "I remember you were his favorite reader because you always let him pick out the books for you."

At this, Nightwing couldn't hold back a laugh. "Really, Hood?"

Jason's shoulders tensed. "I was in the library a lot." Then his head whipped back around to the woman. "Wait, you know who I am?"

The lady nodded with a small smile. "I remember all of the knights of the fortress, Sir Jason." She examined Red Robin and Nightwing down the bridge of her nose. They had gone stock still at the sound of their brother's name. "I don't know either of you, though. Not big readers?"

Red Robin swallowed audibly. His cowl was showing another burst of energy gearing up to shoot away from her.

Nightwing stepped forward, one hand held up palm-forward in a 'hold your horses' gesture. He picked up the book he had previously dodged and flipped through the first few pages. "So, are we reading to find your cat?" He used the voice he did when he talked to the elderly. Red Hood called it his Boy Scout voice.

The lady nodded, and to Red Robin's relief the swell of energy was put on simmer. "I already checked all of the picture books in the city."

The vigilantes put two and two together. "You're the one responsible for this crime spree?" Red Hood asked.

She scoffed. "It's hardly a crime to read books."

Red Robin's chin ducked into a glower. "There's property damage. The old book store by the mall had to close for good."

This made her frown. "I didn't mean for it to happen. Books without pictures are. . . " she flipped her palm back and forth and bobbed her head to the side, "tricky."

Nightwing's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" His grip on the book tightened like he was preparing to throw it.

"Percival is easier to find in the pictures. There's a lot of reading to do otherwise. And it's harder to control what bits come out." She had turned back to the shelves, but she peeked over her shoulder at the book in Jason's hands. "I've already checked that one, you can put it back."

Then she smoothed her fingers over the book in her hands. Red Robin's cowl gave him enough warning to pull Red Hood and Nightwing back. Her eyes began to glow, and she opened the book to somewhere in the middle.

There was another burst of lavender wind. Before he could second-guess himself, Red Robin threw a stun grenade toward the woman. The vigilantes ducked in time for it to go off.

There was a gasp of surprise. The book she had been holding dropped to the floor. "You stupid boys." Her eyes didn't stop glowing, but they were unfocused as she turned toward where they last were. "If you aren't going to help me, then get out of my way!" Her voice rose in volume until it rattled the bookshelves around them.

"Retreat, retreat!" Nightwing muttered into his comm. The woman's burning eyes were already regaining clarity, and they locked on Nightwing's position.

Red Hood pulled Red Robin behind an aisle of books. Nightwing held fast, drawing attention away from his brothers. The woman slowly raised a hand, and as it rose it began to glow. The pages in the open book at her feet began to flip madly.

"Hey, over here!" Red Hood lobbed a heavy hardback at her. It grazed her shoulder, and she glanced in his direction, giving Nightwing the opening he needed to flip over a desk and take cover. At the same time, Red Hood ducked back into the aisle. "Come on, come on," he whispered, pulling him along until they were out of sight enough they could move to a different aisle.

With a snap of her fingers, the glowing book slammed shut. "You can't hide from me," she hissed. The wind around her picked up, and she rose another foot off the ground and began floating toward the bookshelves. The front shelf shook and rocked onto its side, spilling books to the floor.

Nightwing winced. Babs was not going to be happy about that.

There was a pillar in the aisle between the first and second shelf, preventing a domino effect. Still, the wind was continuing to pick up, shooting books from the cases like shrapnel. Red Hood cursed when a book slammed into his helmet, cracking the exterior. He and Red Robin were forced to hunker down to protect their heads from the flying concussions waiting to happen. The woman sneered in glee as she floated closer to where they were hiding.

Nightwing waited until she was a fair distance away before slinking from his hiding place, escrima in hand. He waited until her position was just right, and took a running start to vault off a shelf and onto her back. "Sorry, ma'am, I wouldn't normally do this to somebody your age," he grunted. She elbowed him in the abs, but he locked an escrima around her neck, squeezing in hopes of cutting off blood to the brain.

She bucked once, twice, then zoomed over the aisles, the Red vigilantes forgotten, toward the atrium. Nightwing held fast, pulling his feet up so they wouldn't knock into every shelf they passed. He had had enough experience with supers to not be fazed by the sudden speed change, but it didn't quiet prepare him for the change in direction once they reached the atrium.

She smiled manically as she shot toward the ceiling. Nightwing threw his weight back, hoping to knock her off course. She only sped up. Nightwing held tighter, hiding his face in the crook of his shoulder as they neared. He just caught a glimpse of Red Robin rounding the corner into the atrium when wham! they made impact.

Well, Nightwing did. She slid right through, like water through a cheese grater.

He only had a moment to revel in it before he started to fall.

He dropped his escrima in favor of reaching for his grapple gun. It wasn't there. "Damn woman," he grumbled.

There was a zip! and a body slammed into him mid-descent. The trajectory was off in the oddly-shaped room and with the added weight, so Red Robin and Nightwing slammed into the piece of wall just below the third story, where Red's grapple was wrapped around the banister. Red Robin took the brunt of the impact, and Nightwing's eyes widened when the younger boy's head cracked against the wall.

"Tim," he gasped, grabbing the grapple line when Red Robin's hand went slack. He pulled them both up and over the edge of the banister. Red Robin's eyes were slow to start focusing again, but he was pouting. "You design a cowl but don't make it a functional helmet?" Nightwing joked.

"I've got pretty thick skin," Red Robin replied. "Suppose the thick skull would come with it."

Nightwing wasn't sure if the comment was supposed to be as pointed as it came out. The familiar seed of guilt ached in his chest.

Red Hood jogged toward them both. "Where did she go?"

Nightwing, still supporting Red Robin as he caught his bearings, looked up. "I think she went through."

There was a hiss as Red Hood deactivated his helmet and pulled it off. Luckily, he was wearing his domino underneath. It didn't hide the displeased face he pointed at the ceiling. "Magic users; they're all the same."

Red Robin pushed himself off Nightwing's shoulder. "That was different than anything I've seen before." He turned his back to the two older vigilantes. "I need to review the footage I got tonight."

"Wait," Nightwing said.

Red Robin hesitated but didn't turn around. His back was taught.

Nightwing dropped the hand he had reached toward him. Whatever he was going to say, it hadn't been, "We should double-check downstairs, see if she left anything."

Red Robin rolled his shoulders back and nodded, then brushed past them both toward the steps. He was favoring his right leg slightly.

"Trouble in paradise?" Red Hood asked, watching the teen's retreating form.

Nightwing's eyebrows furrowed and his shoulders drooped. "Define paradise."

"Your call, Goldie; your consequences."

Nightwing didn't bother answering, instead shaking his head. He following Red Robin downstairs and found him examining a handful of gold coins he definitely had not had before.

"They're real," Red Robin provided without prompt.

Nightwing's eyebrows raised. They had to be worth a fortune. "She must have dropped them."

Red Hood kicked aside a few more books. There was a hefty layer of them along the floor. "What would she need them for?"

Nightwing shrugged. "I don't recognize the insignia. We should take them back to the Cave for—" he cut himself off when he caught a whiff of lavender.

He shouted a warning too late. There she was, at the end of the aisle, book open in her hands. She smiled a deceptively sweet smile. "Goodnight, sweet prince," she sing-songed. Then she blew across the open pages, and a cloud of sparkly dust wafted up from the pages. "And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

It was a lavender smell so thick it was hard to breathe. Red Hood was hit first, and he immediately started coughing. Red Robin fell to his knees on the first inhale, chest heaving for something other than that smell. Nightwing reached for his rebreather, but he was either too late or the magic didn't work like that. He and Red Hood doubled over, trying to breathe through the smoke-like dust.

Through watery eyes, Nightwing watched as the woman's lips pulled back into a self-satisfied smile. She gave another quick puff against the book, shooting more of the dust into the air, and brushed a hand across the pages for good measure.

He got distracted when Red Hood fell back against the bookcase, drawing his attention lower. Wind picked up, flipping books over and racing through their pages. The fog was heavy, pressing Nightwing down until he stumbled and caught himself with one hand. The edges of his vision were going black.

When the woman gently drifted away, nobody was conscious to see it.