{{Note from Darklois69:

Hey everybody! I'm sorry it took me so long to update, or do anything, really, but I edited a few things, made some changes. Nothing major, at least not in this chapter. If you have any notes, please feel free to leave a comment, and enjoy!}}

*KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK*

The door opened to reveal an old man. Alfred Pennyworth, who rushed me in once he saw what/who I was carrying. He quickly closed the door behind me and I removed the black cloak-like thing I'd draped over us both. Alfred helped me over to the couch, where I set Nightwing down, then he ran off to go find Bruce and Jason and whoever was here while I sat down.

They had a pretty good response time, I'll give the Bat family that; it only took a few minutes until I had a gun pointed at my head.

"Hello to you too, Jason. Good to see you again so soon," I said sarcastically. I looked over to Richard and Bruce. "Good to see you as well, gentlemen." Neither of them responded. Richard glared at me, and Bruce just watched me. So I looked over at Jason, and kindly reminded him, "1, I wasn't the one you fought earlier, 2, I brought him home," pointing at Richard, "and 3, remember where I was. To get him here, I put myself on both Harley and Pamela's hit lists, so I risked my ass getting him here. Now do you still have any reason to being pointing that thing at me?"

"Why should we trust you?" Jason asked.

"Because she didn't kill me when she had the chance, and she had the chance," Richard chimed in.

"That doesn't mean she won't try to now."

"Jason, put your gun down. Dick, just because she brought you back doesn't mean we should trust her," Bruce said.

"Thank you," I said as Jason stormed off. "I wasn't asking to be trusted, anyway. I just wanted his gun off my head. Thank you for defending me at least a little, though, Mr. Greyson."

"Richard. Call me Richard, or Dick. Not…not Mr. Greyson," Richard said. "I'll go find Jason." he said, standing up. Once he left I relaxed more.

"Where did you go?" Bruce asked.

"Pamela and Harley's home. As far as I knew, they weren't doing anything but trying to live, then they came in. I just went there cause…" I trailed off. I didn't want Johnathan and Edward getting caught, even though they weren't telling me everything.

"Would you like to stay here for the time being? We could protect you from Ivy and Harley," Bruce said with his playboy, media-familiar, voice.

"No thank you, but could I get some food, please?" I asked. He stood up and waved me toward the kitchen, where he made me some dinner. Surprisingly, Bruce can cook pretty well, even though he's had everything served to him on a silver platter his whole life.

After I ate, I left. I walked for a few hours, after I checked for bugs/trackers from Bruce, eventually ending tonight's adventure in the park.

And I saw the damage I did to the park.

There was a circle about five feet wide of dead plant life, surrounded by trees bent outward, burned dead themselves. In the very center there was a purple staff-looking thing, and it was glowing slightly. Being my stupid self, I walked toward it, which made it glow brighter.

"You've returned, daughter."

I turned around and saw no one there. I turned a full 360 degrees and still saw no one. 'Eh,' I thought. And went on walking toward the glowing staff. Once I was close enough, I reached out for it and picked it up, right out of the ground.

The staff stopped glowing as soon as I touched it, then shrank to fit my hand perfectly. I shrugged and put the now mini-wand in my pocket and sat down in the circle. I tried to relax after the events of today, but considering what happened, relaxation was not going to be my friend.

I must have fallen asleep soon after, since the sun woke me up. Sitting up, I remembered where I was. I looked around and saw the park; completely unharmed. The ground beneath me was soft and covered in lush, green grass, the trees were un-bent and so numerous, they formed a small forest around me. Out of the trees came a woman. She had long hair the shade of violets, skin the color of alabaster, and was wearing a long black coat over a lavender and black dress. I knew her immediately. Mom had come to pick me up from school (after however long it's been since I disappeared!).

Seeing my mom, I tried to run, but couldn't move. It was like her stare was pinning me down. She looked at me like a mother would, but there was something else behind the motherly-ness of her (which was new in and of itself).

"I've missed you, dear," she said. When I listened to her voicemails, she sounded more panicked and worried. Now, it was like she didn't care that I'd been missing for however long it had been. Like she was her normal self. She reached me and cradled my face in her hand, and I felt sparks on my face after her hand fell to her side.

Upon seeing her hand, I could tell why: there were purple sparks arcing out of her palm, coming out of what seemed to be a rip in her skin.

"I'm sorry, dear. You weren't supposed to be here yet," she told me kneeling to be at eye level with me. Wait, what?!

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" I shouted, suddenly able to move. I stood and backed up to a tree immediately, surprising the shit out of her as well as myself. I put my palms on the tree behind to to steady my light-headed self, and, somehow, accidentally blew it apart.

"Control yourself, now!" she said roughly grabbing my wrists and I caught a glimpse of blood red sparks coming from my palms before slamming my eyes shut. It took a few minutes, but I felt her hands release my wrists, and there weren't any sparks from my hands anymore. 'Ok, whatever the ever-loving fuck that was goes away when I stay calm,' I thought making a mental note.

"Next time that happens, I cut off your power, completely!" she snapped.

"What power?! This is the first time that's ever fucking happened to me!" I shouted at her. More sparks. Calm down, damnit!

"Then what do you call the beacon in your pocket?"

"What beacon?" Then I felt the wand-thingy, I'm guessing 'the beacon,' try to remove itself from my pocket, rather violently in fact. I went to pull it out so I didn't have another hole in my good jeans, and got yelled at.

"If you touch that, you will not only hurt yourself, but waste more of your power," she said apathetically. "Here." And she reached over, stuck her hand into my pocket, and pulled out 'the beacon.' In her hand, it glowed slightly and grew to about a foot long with swirls constantly changing all down the length. She smiled.

"Thank you, my dear. I've been looking for this for years," she said her voice becoming more demonic with every word. She pointed her…wand(?) at me and I saw a flash of light, then nothing for a long time.