He was gone. She had looked everywhere. Every grove, every park, every dorm he would have reason to be in and he was gone. She was furious. Everyone always moved aside for her when she went into town, but it was hard to not notice a stark white seven foot woman stalking angrily towards the pavilion at the center of the square. Luckily for him, the man she was looking for was already there, sharpening arrows for the archery lesson he was teaching that afternoon.
"Chiron. We need to talk."
"And what would that be about my dear?" the man asked with a smile, rising to a standing position only a few inches taller than her own, but she was having none of that today.
"My son is gone. I've checked everywhere he isn't on Olympus."
"I don't know who you're referring to Aspis, there are many demigods under your care."
"And yet only one whom I've raised since infancy and calls me 'mom'," she said, irritated.
"You speak of Mr. Taylor, I presume? I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. He's a good young man."
"Yeah, well so was Alexander Rosales, and so were Jacob and Karen, but they're gone too and if you don't pay more attention to this you're going to have a big problem on your hands I don't care what Zeus wants or doesn't want you to do," she snapped, large and solid chlorophyll green eyes glaring dangerously, "Olympus may be Eliott's only home, but I can tell you for a fact that he'd rather be on earth fighting for his life alongside his friends than up here without them worrying constantly about their safety, and he isn't the only kid up here like that, so if more end up following Rosales and his little crusade down you're going to have to begin to confront this. This makes four children now Chiron, Four, who aren't banished and who have run away. Whatever is going on needs to be addressed before others start getting ideas."
Chiron sighed.
"Aspis, you know I wish what happened with Alexander's quest hadn't just as much as you and Rowan do, but I can't over rule Zeus."
"Well maybe you should actually bother to teach kids how to use their damn powers so they don't accidentally kill someone next time!"
"You know I'm not allowed to do that Aspis," Chiron said, keeping his voice level, but she could see the mixture of hurt and sadness in his eyes.
"Well maybe that's just one of the things that needs to change then," the dryad growled, before turning away and stomping off.
"There is always a chance they'll come back Aspis, just be hopeful!" The centaur called after her, and she huffed. She went to the dorm buildings she was in charge of, the ones with her grove growing protectively around them, and melted into the oldest tree. She was afraid for him. The fact that he hadn't been on earth since his mother tried to give him up for adoption after he was born did not help.
Soon she was distracted however, by a friend of hers. Rowan, a short, less reedy looking Dryad than Aspis, who looked after the dorm across the street from Aspis's grove.
"I heard about your boy," Rowan sympathized sadly when Aspis left her tree.
"Well, after Jacob and Karen left it was only a matter of time I suppose."
Rowan nodded.
"They have Blake with them. If they're going to be on the streets he's the best guide they could have from here."
"You trust him?"
"It's the nature of his heritage for him to cause trouble. It isn't always purposeful."
Aspis sighed, looking up at the morning sky through her canopy. The sound of Rory yelling at Castor for who knows what could be heard from outside, but she ignored it. Pollux could deal with his sister just fine.
"So you think they'll be alright?"
"I can't say that I know, but I trust Blake to keep them safe, no matter what he has to do. He felt like it was his fault after all."
"How? The whole thing was Alexander's doing."
Rowan bristled.
"Not that he intended harm of course, Rowan."
"Of course. Blake felt that if he had been more careful and watchful Ace never would have had to use his powers, and this whole thing would have been avoided."
"Then he is a fool. What was done is done. There is no way around what the fates have sewn. The only thing that could have saved Alexander was the boy's own father, and he did nothing of the sort."
"Zeus, always a king before he's a father."
It was about 9:30, and Wally sat in his room, remembering for the second time that night that he didn't actually have homework to be doing because it was summer and he didn't even have school. His phone buzzed and he saw that it was a text from Dick, who was supposed to finally be back in Gotham tonight. Wally was concerned. Things either went really well, or terribly if Dick texted him.
Can I come over?
"God damn it Bruce what did you do?" Wally muttered to himself as he typed out a reply.
Sure, I'll go unlock the back door so you can get in.
Wait hold on no
What?
His window opened behind him, and he just about fell off of his bed.
"Jesus fucking Christ Dick you're going to give me a heart attack doing that," Wally breathed, running a hand through his hair in exasperation, "You do realize that you're supposed to go to someone's house after you ask if it's okay and not the other way around right?"
Dick laughed.
"So, Sleepover?" Wally asked, eyeing the boys backpack, "What'd he do this time?" His friend let out a long sigh, and the two sat down on Wally's bed.
"Guess who has a new sibling?" Dick asked, the cheer in his voice as fake as his smile. Wally stared at him, dumbstruck.
"What?"
"Precisely!" Dick threw up his hands in exasperation and then pressed them into his forehead, elbows on his knees.
"You okay there buddy?"
"Do I look okay?"
"No."
"Shocking." They sat in silence for a bit before Dick spoke again. "It baffles me sometimes just how badly he plans things in regard to how others are going to feel about his decisions, like he didn't even tell me! Just after dinner took me to a guest room to introduce me to him with absolutely Zero Prior Warning! I can't."
Wally patted him on the back.
"Anything else?"
"Just… less than perfect timing for him to reveal something as serious as this so badly."
"What's the kids name?"
"Jason Todd. I'll get to his file later, find out what exactly happened. Bond over Bruce's sub-par antecedent planning skills when it comes to family issues. Or something. I don't know. This is gonna be weird. Do you think he knows, like, everything?"
"Maybe, if he doesn't we totally need to bet on how long it takes him to figure it out. How long did you go? A week?"
"About that, yeah." the boy wonder yawned, and Wally gave him an amused smile.
"Has a month off duty fixed your sleep schedule already? I'm surprised."
Then he caught the yawn, and it was Dick's turn to look amused.
"I'll have you know that my time is ahead of yours KF, and no, if I fell asleep now it's be a nap at best."
"May as well stay up and play videogames then," Wally said with a grin, and Dick laughed.
It's the eighth of July, warm and clear and blue, sun shining like a cheerful yellow eye in the sky above. It was a perfect day. She was going to do it.
"Sigrid?" she called, knocking lightly on the door, "It's Diana. I was wondering if you wanted to do something today."
The girl opened the door. Her hair was in frizzy curls from not being blown dry that morning, and past her her room was a mess. Diana could see several balls of yarn in different places on the floor, a tray of paint tubes in a similar place next to a white metal tray with dried smears of paint on it, and several different mounds of clothes near the hamper in the corner of the room by the door.
"Unless you're busy, of course," Diana continued.
"What were you thinking of?" Sigrid asked.
"We could go for a hike. Would you like that?"
Sigrid paused for a moment, and Diana was afraid she had brought something up that she shouldn't have before the girl nodded.
"There's a trail near here going along the sea. I was thinking we could go there."
"Sounds good, I'll get changed."
Eventually the two were outside along the coast, sunscreen over their bare arms and legs. Diana wore a blue t-shirt that matched her eyes, and Sigrid was in a pink tank top. They walked for a while in silence, the caws of gulls and the sound of the sea filling up the comfortable quiet between them.
"What are those called in english?" Sigrid asked eventually, pointing at the birds.
"Seagulls," Diana answered with a smile.
"They're really loud."
"Yes, the are," she agreed, "Do you like birds?"
"Some. I like Sanderlings, and Stints, and Snipes, and rock doves, and swifts, and our robins are cute these American robins just look weird though, blue tits are cute, and I love crows. Your crows are all black though, we have the hooded ones with the white or grey bodies, not the all black ones. At least in Finland anyway. Carrions are all black, like the American ones are, but those are farther south."
"So you like birds?" Diana asked.
"Mhm. The crows back home like me because Mirja let me feed them. This one group of them always nested in the alders in the backyard and let me climb their trees."
"Hm."
They lapsed into silence again.
"So you like the team?" Diana asked after a few moments.
"Yeah. Everyone's nice."
"Black Canary's told me you train with them."
"Mhm."
"Do you want to be a part of it? Join them?"
Sigrid paused.
"I've thought about it. I'd be good on stealth missions. And I'm a good fighter."
"Canary's said that about you. Have you thought any more about it?"
"A bit."
Diana looked over at her, so she elaborated.
"I've drawn some costume designs, and thought of names with Robin."
Diana chuckled.
"You two seem oftly close."
"He's nice. And easy to talk to. He gets things."
"Like what?"
"Why I train all the time."
"And why's that?"
When the girl didn't respond immediately she looked over, and saw that her face was blank.
"It's nothing."
Diana ticked that off as a concern, but dropped the subject, not wanting to make Sigrid talk about something she clearly didn't want to bring up.
"What about the others on the team?" she asked, and while her expression didn't change she saw Sigrid's shoulders relax, glad for the subject change.
"M'gann and Conner are good to live with, and Zatanna is kind. I don't like sleeping so near them though. M'gann gets my nightmares, and then they ask questions."
"Do you not like it when people ask questions?"
"Not questions like that."
"Why not?"
"They don't need to know. Wally's a dork, and he likes my cooking. Artemis is funny, and Kaldur is just, nice. He has a good heart."
Diana sighed at the way Sigrid continued to avoid certain topics, but decided that it was best for now. They weren't close enough for her to really press the issue. Yet.
"So how did your outing with Sigrid go?" Bruce asked when Diana came back to the cave.
"It went well, thank you for the suggestion."
"Dick mentioned that she enjoyed being outside, so it wouldn't have been much of a stretch."
Diana smiled.
"The two are good friends."
"Yes, they are. Are you alright? You look concerned about something."
"She wants to join the team, but I'm not sure I would be the best mentor for her."
"Does she want you to be her mentor?"
"I'm not sure, but if she's going to be on the team she needs a mentor."
"It isn't quite a requirement," he said with a rare smile.
"Yes, but she's my responsibility, it only makes sense."
"Why do you think you wouldn't be the best mentor for her then?"
"She's… motivated differently. And we have different powers."
"What do you mean by 'motivated differently'?"
"She does what she thinks is right regardless of what we say, if anything she's more like you than she is like me."
Bruce was about to object to that statement, but she fixed him with a look that made him rethink that decision, and close his mouth.
"I think it may be good for her to be on the team. She trains regularly with them and by herself already, it would just be her joining them on missions that would be new."
"She trains with them?"
"Yes. Speaking of that, and her being friends with Dick, she said something while we were out that I was wondering about. She said that he understood why she trained so much. What does that mean?"
Bruce sighed.
"She probably feels that the death of her mother is her own fault, and wants to make sure nothing like it ever happens again."