Author Notes: With this story, I wanted to challenge myself balancing multiple characters, action, romance and plot, and I have had a blast so far, trying to figure it all out. It would be so wonderful if you readers could let me know how I'm doing, and enjoy the ride with me.

Chapter 1: Fallout

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Dick has a headache. He's had a headache for days now, weeks even, if he's counting the moment, he ran off with an orphan child, baring powers and emotional trauma. His eyes are dry and sticky, and his head feels like it's being squeezed in a vice, as the searing pain reaches for every corner of his mind.

The mismatched group drone on in the background of his muddled thoughts, their voices dulled like his ears are full of water.

He makes a fist and breathes deep to still himself, mind and body. Bruce taught him a long time ago about the benefits of stillness while walking, eating, showering or fighting. He said if he conquered himself, then he could master self-control even in the middle of the most chaotic emotions, in crippling pain. So, he mediates.

And he breathes, blowing through the spasming of his chest muscles and the hot-white pain pooling around his left ankle as it swells. He can do this. He can do this because he has no other choice.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Their voices continue to overlap. He turns his attention to them. They're all there, except one, Rachel, and he hopes to God, if there is one, he did the right thing following her lead.

Now he has to tell Kory and the others what he did, what he allowed Rachel to do, and he hasn't found a way to say it yet. He watches closely, noting the way Gar has folded into himself on one half the couch, making himself as small as possible, while Kory measures her breathing as she leans against the wall, poised, attempting to hide how bruised and weakened she is.

Dick swallows hard. He needs to hear her voice, know she's okay, but even feet apart, she's miles away now. He's miles away, too, somewhere between the place he loved her and grieved her, and there, in the living room having a quiet anxiety attack about whether he did the right thing.

Dawn and Hank remain where the front door used to be, letting outside come in. The wind drifts towards him carrying with it, the smell of ash and dirt, and blood, and he shivers against it. Dawn seems reluctant to come any closer, as though she is wary of landmines beneath their feet while Jason paces, Dick assumes, because he has a lot of energy to expel after expecting a fight and missing it. He could tell them it wasn't much of a fight but -

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Donna stands a short stride away from him, and he tries to remain still. Mostly because his ankle cries out every time he moves, but also because he doesn't want anyone to worry about him. He is and should be the least of everyone's concern. Rachel. She is the priority.

"Run that shit by me again," Hank's voice booms with cynicism. "Demons – really?"

"You think you've seen it all," Donna says. "and then a teenage boy turns into a giant gorilla."

Jason huffs. "I can't believe I missed that shit," he groans. "hey, beast boy, can you do it again, like on cue?" When Gar says nothing, he stops at his feet, leaning close, too close, and clicks his fingers. "Yo!"

"Hey," Dick yells. "Leave him alone."

"Oh, fuck, it speaks." Hank spits. "Any genius ideas on how to take down a fucking demon, bird boy?"

"Cool it," Donna glares from across the room at him, and Dick's glad she's there by his side. She always has been.

Dick cups the back of his neck and squeezes. Thud. Thud. Thud. "We need a plan of attack."

"A plan of attack?" Dawn echoes, stepping a toe in front of her giant boyfriend. "Dick, what about Rachel – how do we find her? How do we know she's okay? She reached out for me. Asked for my help. And she's not here, so what do we do?"

"We find him," Kory finally speaks, but her eyes are far away. "I turn him into dust this time." And then she looks up. "There's your plan."

"That isn't much of a plan." Dawn says wearily. "I think we need to be on the defense."

Kory leans off the wall. "No offense," she starts, pinning Dawn where she stands with a curious look, taking her in. "You all look really cute in your outfits but can any of you fly, or go invisible, or turn into gorilla," the silence answers her question, and she nods. "OK, then."

Dick sighs. "Listen, Rachel is safe – in fact I think she's our plan of attack. He needs something from her, if we find out what that is, we have a chance, maybe even an advantage."

Hank raises a brow at that. "How?" He asks with exaggerated incredulity.

"We know Rachel. He doesn't." Kory says, and Dick nods.

"Speaking of this demon-daddy bullshit," Jason slumps down on the arm of the sofa and Gar flinches.

Dick thinks maybe he's the only one who saw, but he catches Kory stiffen in response. He realizes for a split second he'd forgotten Gar was a kid and his heart constricts a little.

"What if Rachel's gone dark. Joined her dad's cause?" Jason continues.

"She hasn't," Gar retorts, speaking up for the first time.

Hank shrugs. "I've seen her in action. She can go pretty dark. Tear my kitchen up kind of dark."

"She's just a kid." Dick asserts, resentfully.

"A kid that got inside Dawn's head and brought her back. A kid who was able to put this chick," Hank points to Kory. "inside your head to break her dad's hold on your scrawny ass."

"Dick," Dawn's voice is gentle when she speaks. "I think they have a point. She is a kid, but she's not just a kid." Glancing around the room, she adds, "we need to consider all the possibilities so we're not running into anything blind."

Gar stands suddenly, his chest heaving as the sheet barely clings to him. "None of you know her," he says. "not like us. She went with her dad to save us, if she hadn't you wouldn't be talking to us right now."

"No offense, kid," Hank says with less charge in his voice. "Your feelings about her is the reason why you won't consider it, ask the tough questions – but what if we save her and she does to us what her psychopath dad did to him?" he juts his chin out at Dick.

"I don't care. She's my friend. If she turns, I know we can get her back. Dick and Kory can. I can." Gar's chin quivers. "She saved us." He looks to Dick. "We have to save her back."

"We will." Dick promises. "Gar-," before he can finish reassuring the kid, he's drops the sheet and crouches down into a tiger. "Gar," he calls after him as he leaps out of the hole in the wall, to the amazement of the others.

"Holy shit," Jason shouts with laughter in his voice. "Nice."

"What the actual fuck?" Hank cries, his eyes wide and his cheeks turning pink.

"Gar," Kory calls after him, but he's long gone. "Fuck."

Thud. Thud. Thud.

"This isn't just about Rachel, it's about the entire world being taken over by him." Dick says. "I need you all on board." He hops towards the door, with his hand pressed to his ribs.

"Where are you going?" Donna asks.

"After Gar," Kory finishes. "I'll come with you."

"No." Dick stops. His heart takes off in a race so fast, he almost loses what little balance he has trying to walk on his bum-ankle. "It's okay," he glances up at her briefly, and it becomes harder to breathe. "I'll bring him back. Promise."

Kory takes a step back and swallows, and he sees it, and he could die, again. "OK." She says quietly, turning her ring around her finger.

Donna glances at him, and then Kory, and sighs. And he knows what she's thinking: Typical. But this is anything but. He wishes it was, but he can only manage one thing at a time, one overwhelming emotion at a time, and Kory is a whole damn encyclopaedia of emotions he is already struggling to keep at bay.

Thud. Thud.

He stands in front of Hank and cups his shoulder, giving it a squeeze as he passes him. The angry blonde gives him a questioning look. "It's good to see you. Really." He doesn't need an answer or reciprocity, him alive, is enough.

"Hank is it?" Kory scrapes the purple sparkle from her nails. "It's Kory." She says, looking up at him. "Call me chick again and I'll light you up for practice," flashing her green eyes, she smiles and moves towards the kitchen.

"Noted." Hank calls after her.

Kory enters the kitchen and glances over the body of the sheriff. She kneels beside him and gently brushes her fingers over the wound. The shirt is stuck to his body, hardened by the blood that drained from him, leaving his face white and the floor red. She takes a breath and stands up, unsure of what to feel about his death. Angela is the one who killed him, but somehow guilt stirs in her anyway.

She leans against the counter and lets the pain and exhaustion take her over. Hearing Dick's voice outside, she presses onto her elbows and watches him through the window walk-limping in the distance.

Her skin is tight and twitchy, and her heart is doing something it's never done before; stuttering, hard. She drops her head low and breathes out, but her breaths are shaky and uneven, and she can't seem to steady her hands even after she turns them into fists. She's worried, and she has a lot to be worried about. Rachel is gone, Gar is spinning out and Dick – he's avoiding her, she thinks, wonders.

They've been intimate before, quite a few times, and they've said things, too. But being inside of him, inside his mind, witnessing his memories as if they were her own, feeling them as if she was there and it was happening to her, well it was intimacy taken to new heights.

She knew his parents were dead. She knew he had issues with Bruce. She knew he was struggling with his identity after leaving Robin behind, but she didn't know. She couldn't.

Now she did. She really knew, she'd been there, felt it and seen it. All Dick's pain. His abandonment, grief and fear. His rage. It had consumed her. Even now, free of him, she worries how he's processing the emotional torture Trigon made him endure. And if it's pulled him wide open or made him close himself off even tighter than before.

The back of her eyes sting. Rachel is gone, and she should've done more to protect her. She should've fought harder to break through that shimmer, to get inside and stand with them. She never should've left Gar in that house with that woman and now he's left with ramifications yet to unravel.

Rachel was alone with a monster and Gar was hurt, and she could've done more – she could've –

"Mind if I cut in," Donna's voice breaks through her mantra.

Kory straightens up and turns to Donna as she enters the kitchen. "Cut in?"

"You were in a world of your own for a minute there," Donna says with a grimace as she lays eyes on the body.

"Accurate," Kory offers a smile. "A world called Tamaran."

Donna glances over her shoulder and then takes a step closer. "We're going to get Rachel back."

Kory swallows, gently sucking her lower lip in and nods. "I know." But what were they going to find when they did, a world on fire? Thousands of people who looked like Dick, vacant and under Trigon's control? When. When were they going to get Rachel back? "I need to get some air."

"We made quite the team out there," Donna says as Kory moves off the counter.

"Yeah," Kory breathes out, and the frown lines disappear. "We did."

Donna takes a step closer. "It's not the only thing I'm good at – the fighting." She shrugs. "Good at listening, too."

Kory stills, and takes Donna in. Dick is the biggest dick she's ever met. He has no idea how many good people he has around him, wanting to protect him and take care of him. People who care about him, like Donna, Rachel, and Gar, and …her. "Thanks Donna."

Donna glances around and sings with relief when she spots the folded tablecloth on the counter. She flaps it open and gently draws it over the sheriff, and Kory helps her straighten it on him.

Gar had settled in the ramshackle barn several feet from the house and turned human. It felt different now, turning. He was taking a risk every time he shifted, and he had no idea what would be waiting for him on the other side. It was a game of Russian roulette, a coin toss and it terrified him. Maybe he was going to lose control of himself – maybe the Tiger was just the beginning and something more powerful and scarier was taking him over.

And if that was the case, was anyone safe around him?

His nose flares as the tears spill down his face. "Ow," he winces as he leans back and feels a sharp scratch in his shoulder blade. He pushes his hand as far as it will go behind him to pull the splinter, he caught daring to lean against weather battered timber, but it remains out of his reach.

It burns, and he wriggles, and stretches and bends trying to get it, to no avail. A warm sensation takes him over, buzzing beneath his skin, growing hotter as he struggles and fails, until a ball of fire rises in his throat, and he roars. He roars so loud, the fragile barn rumbles around him.

And he jumps. Afraid of his own rage. His own growl.

The tears spring back and he pulls his scraped knees up into his chest, wrapping his arms around them. He doesn't know how to do this, how to deal – he isn't even sure what's happening, but he feels the change in his body. Power unlike anything he ever felt before courses through him, growing and pulsing, and he doesn't want this. It's too much.

His eyes wander the dimmed corner of the barn where old, flaky, coarse bristles lay dead and stacked hay leans against the feeble half-timbered walls, and Rachel comes to mind, the darkness, her eyes, her skin – that man's words: "She can go pretty dark."

"No," he mutters, pulling his legs closer. He won't think of her that way, he won't. He knows she is good, and kind, and protective – and scared like he is.

Gar sniffles and quickly scrubs his face dry when he hears footsteps approaching. He doesn't expect Dick when he limps in, and a sting of guilt rises in him for making the man come after him after what he'd just been through physically and mentally.

"Are you okay?" Dick says, and then scoffs. He has a pile of clothes under his arm. "Stupid question." He frowns, dropping them into his lap. "You're bleeding," and moves to Gar's side, getting down on his knee with a hiss of pain. He's gentle when he touches Gar's shoulder. "You got a splinter. Hold still."

Gar swallows and dips his head.

Dick plucks the splinter and lifts his shirt to dab away the blood Gar can smell. He could smell blood before, but now it smells stronger, sharper. "Got it." He lands on his backside with a groan and rests his wrists on his knees. "It's going to be okay, you know," Dick assures.

Gar straightens his back and grabs the clothes, slinking back into the dark behind Dick. He slips into his jeans and throws his T-shirt on before reemerging. "You don't know that," he sighs. "Everything's changed and it's all my fault."

Dick snaps his head up. Confusion twisting his face.

"All of it," Gar whispers, slumping down beside Dick. "I went with Rachel to that asylum to get her mom out. I encouraged her. We ignored you and Kory and broke her free. I shouldn't -,"

"Hey," Dick sits forward. "None of this is your fault. You're just a kid."

"I wish you'd stop saying it like that," Gar grunted. "I just turned into a gorilla. Rachel has powers we don't understand, powers that saved you." He swallows. "Your friend's right about us, we're not just kids."

Dick nods, and a moment of silence falls between them. "What you can do -," he starts. "What you did do,"

"was terrifying," Gar shudders out.

Dick turns to him. "Is that how you feel?" he asks. "Gar what you can do is – special." He smiles, it's small and measured but sincere. "But," he adds. "You are a kid. And everything that has happened – the motel, the asylum, last night, it's a lot to take in or make sense of,"

"I'm fine," Gar answers hurriedly. He has to be because he's afraid of what not being fine could look like, if it'd even be human. If he was still human.

"OK," Dick says. "That's good. But you don't have to be." He sighs. "I don't know if I am."

Gar swallows. "After what happened to you – it's normal, right?"

"Yeah." Dick says, hesitantly. "It is, after everything you've been through, everything we've all been through…I can only imagine how scary it was for you," he takes a breath. "and Rachel seeing me like that, being trapped with her father."

"I should've done more."

"You did more than any kid should have to." Dick interrupts. "You did everything you could. In fact, I came to find you to lecture you about putting yourself in harm's way when you should've been hiding and keeping yourself safe, but then I realized, I owe you, Gar."

"For what?" Gar holds his breath.

"Fighting to protect us." Dick says. "What you did was brave. Heroic. Inspiring." He confesses. "I know we can do this. I know we can get Rachel back and stop Trigon – because of you."

"Me?" Gar fights back the tears when Dick nods, and he nods in response because it's all he can manage in the unexpected turn of events. His heart swells and he fights the urge to fall into Dick's arms because he doesn't want to freak him out.

He was happy where he was before, at the mansion. He had his own space, and he could do what he wanted for the most part. The chief would ask for blood samples occasionally and sit him down in a room to talk about how he felt about his transition, but mostly, he liked being in his room, his little bubble filled with everything that reminded him of home. Memorabilia and trinkets that reminded him of his parents, mostly his mother, the biggest horror fan he'd ever met. He was content with his new life, almost.

He had friends. Cliff cared for him, and Larry, and even Rita in her own unique way. The chief too, but they were all just big freaks, him the biggest one of all, thrown together in a house to get on with it. And they did, some days they tried to figure it all out together, this new life with new challenges, and some days they ignored it completely.

Neither of them tried to parent him and he never felt like he needed to be parented. They were all honorary siblings. His parents were dead after all and he'd figured it out anyway, this growing up gig. He'd survived.

But then he met Kory, and she made him feel warm, literally, and safe – and he wasn't so sure she was doing it intentionally. And now Dick was doing it too. Caring in a way that reminded him of how old he was, and how safe he needed to feel. He was a freakin' tiger, he could protect himself, and yet this feeling, this familial sensation of safety, and care and protection tugged on and drug up a longing he thought he'd buried long ago.

Dick hissed, gripping his head and Gar snapped to attention. "I'm sorry, are you okay?" he touched Dick's shoulder.

"Just a headache," Dick takes a breath and straightens himself up. "Give me a hand?"

Gar springs to his feet, pulling Dick up, too.

"I know you're fine," Dick says, squeezing Gar's shoulder. "But when you're not, I need you to swear you'll come to me, or Kory."

Gar nods. "I swear."

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Dick enters the house with Gar behind him and finds Angela propped up against the sofa, cradling her arm, or what's left of it, with a black belt pulled tight around it. He looks up and finds Kory, standing close by.

"She was bleeding out," Kory explains.

"She cauterized the wound," Donna adds. "She didn't want to, took some convincing."

He sees the hole has been covered with a bed sheets nailed to the wall, the split sofa pushed together, and all the debris swept away. "Where are the others?"

"Hank and Dawn are getting into their civilian clothes, right now." Donna says.

"The boy's also upstairs," Kory says. "Something about a bad burrito." She takes a breath, and then moves to Gar. "Are you okay?" she rushes his hair back when he nods. "I'm sorry,"

Gar frowns. "For what?"

"All of it," Kory swallows. "I've been going over it again and again in my head. What we did wrong – what I did wrong, pushing Rachel into her mother's arms, making her vulnerable to her father because of what I did to her."

Thud. Thud. Thud.

"That wasn't you," Dick says. "Not really."

"I should've stopped her from going with him," she groaned. "I could have – I wasn't trapped, or hurt,"

"You couldn't have stopped her." Dick assures. "She knew what she wanted, and she did it."

"What do you mean?" Kory stills. "Dick?"

He knows it isn't the right time to tell them, but he doesn't know when would be. All he knows is, he won't let Kory take the blame for Rachel, or allow guilt to fester in Gar any longer. "Right before she left," he breathes out. "Right before she left, she spoke to me, in my head," he looks down. "told me to let her go with him."

"What?" Kory growled.

"You let Rachel go with Trigon?" Gar says, teary eyed.

Thudthudthud.

"C'mon," Donna stands beside Dick. "you were there, we were all there. It wasn't a choice. Rachel going was the only way."

"For what?" Gar asks. "To save ourselves,"

"She needed time to get close to him, earn his trust. Figure out his endgame." Dick's vision tilts. Heat pools in his spine and colors flash behind his eyes with every blink. He tries to meditate, focus on Kory's face, but thoughts of her lying at his feet frozen gives way to the climbing pain. "It was the only scenario where we got out alive. I didn't have time to think about it. All I know is, he needs her for something."

"And you gave her to him." Gar argues.

"Gar," Kory softly.

"And you're on his side," Gar clenches his jaw. "You both are."

Dick stumbles forward, reaching for Gar, wanting to make him understand. Rachel is the only one who can get close enough. "All we have to do is find them."

"You think she can destroy him, don't you?" Kory asks. "What if she isn't ready?"

"We can't think about that." Dick says. "We use what we have cause it's all we -," he swallows shards of glass. "I believe in her. I know she can do it. I-," rolling his eyes as the room shrinks around him.

"Dick?" Kory steps closer and her voice echoes.

Thudthudthudthud.

His head has been pounding for so long, it takes minutes for him to differentiate the sound from his heart. When he does, it's pounding so hard he can't take a full breath. "I just – she wanted – I couldn't let him hurt-,"

"Dick," Donna rushes to him.

Thud. Thud.

Sweat treads from his hairline, tracing the side of his face. The room starts to spin, and their faces blur into a mesh of colors. He reaches forward for something to hold him up and stumbles when he finds nothing. Then he hears his name followed by a chorus of panic before the room tilts on its head and he lands.

Thud.

To Be Continued x