AN-Thanks for the reviews and stuff guys, can't believe I still got people willing to read this at all considering my utter lack of updates. This is a bit short but.. well I HAVE been working on Ephemeral.. Please enjoy.

CHAPTER 11

Dick fidgeted under the gaze, shifting his weight from one foot to the next. Those narrowed eyes, that heated gaze, had followed him across the room, studying his every move. Not a muscle twitched in his body, his lips never moved from that straight line. Finally he sighed, exasperated. "Timmy, don't look at me like that!" He pleaded.

"You lied." It was clipped, accusing and very, very cold.

"Omitted." Dick said quickly.

"Still a lie." Tim came back just as quickly.

"That's arguable." Through the whole conversation Tim still hadn't moved, his expression didn't loose any of that steeliness. It scared him just how like Bruce he'd become. "Look, it's not like we did it to hurt you guys! We thought it'd be better this way." Tims expression finally changed, but Dicks relief was very short lived when it was an expression of anger that took over the younger features.

"You thought it'd be better to hide the existence of not only parallel worlds but the very existence of a separate Danielle?" He growled. "You hid the fact she came here! The fact she told you everything! Why was that better?"

"We didn't want any of you to feel pressured into anything." Dick rubbed absently at his neck, glancing over his shoulder. It was such a private conversation but boy was he tempted to call in back up. "None. of you deserved to feel like you were being compared or forced into anything."

"But we were, weren't we?" Tims response caught Dick off guard, making him stand there dumbstruck, mouth open, eyes wide. "That's why she left." Tim growled, more to himself

Dick blinked, recovering from his shock. His expression turned grim. "Tim, what's going on here? How did you even get these files?" He demanded. He knew that look Tim was giving him. It was an appraisal, Tim was judging him, analyzing him. He didn't like being on the receiving end of this expression. "Tim." He said sternly, pulling on his best Bruce face, his darkest voice. He was a far cry from the Bat but he wasn't a push over either.

"He didn't tell you either." Tim murmured.

"Tim, if something's going on I need to know about it."

Tim turned to the side, choosing to glare at his wall as he thought out his situation. Dick could see the gears grinding away in there. He was nearly tempted to grab the boy by the shoulder, shake the answers out of him. But that would get him nowhere. Tim would only calm up harder, shutting himself off from everyone, just like Bruce. Dicks shoulders slumped with a sigh. He was getting nowhere today.

"I can't help if you won't open up to me Tim." He sighed as he turned. He turned to leave, knowing his prescience would not allow Tim to uncurl from that tight little ball he was in, locked away like a turtle in his shell. Though his back was turned to the teen he could hear the slide of the wooden drawer sliding and then the click as a small object was tossed at his back. He caught it with ease, glancing at Tim who was already turning his back on his older brother.

"I never showed it to Bruce. I edited it out before he could get his hands on it." Was all Tim said before entering the attached bathroom to his room, door sliding shut and locking behind him, a clear sign for Dick to explore this on his own, far away from the emotionally distraught teen. Looking down he found a small square carry case that could fit in the palm of his hand with room to spare, a small chip in the center, a storage device, one designed to store the video feed from their masks...

~o~

Dick slipped the small chip into the computer system, only waiting a moment before the screen flared to life and a small dark square formed to display the feed stored to the disk. Not much, a few seconds of a view through binoculars, patrol clearly, a stake out, waiting for a target to emerge.

There was a slight jerk, a jump from Timmy. The world spun in the lenses till she came into view, the same girl he'd seen from the footage of that night with Jason. She leapt out of Tims grasp, landing some distance away, lithe, feline like body in full view and Dicks mouth went dry.

That symbol. That gray shape, head forward, wings wide and proud across the expanse of her chest. It was perfect, an exact replica of an image he could never forget. He found it hard to swallow around the heart in his throat, but it couldn't be what he was thinking. Her age was a bit telling. She'd have been young, perhaps really young, but she'd have been alive. Some newspaper clipping, some article or report was all that was needed. She was cocky, that much was certain in the way she moved, the sway of her hips as she approached his baby brother. It wouldn't be difficult to see her stealing the idea, mocking them in the way she had taken Tim out the first time, taking not one but two targets out right in front of them. She certainly had a set and wasn't afraid to show it.

The breath was knocked from his lungs. He stumbled back, grabbing the back of a chair to keep himself up when a pair of jade green eyes peered up from under dark lashes into Timmys face. Her cheekbones seemed a bit higher, some of the baby fat melting from her slender face with maturity. Her eyes were dark and glazed with lust and desire, pink tongue darting out to wet her lips before she moved in close, pulling Tim in for an unexpected kiss.

B08.. The designation ran through his mind.. Sparrow.. No one could have known.. no one.. And her age.. He shook his head, fighting to keep himself on his feet. Had she returned? But how would they have not known? How did Jason find her? Who was this girl, this doppelganger with his baby sisters face? What had happened to his young Dani?