Chapter 10
Dick stuttered out some gibberish before sighing and shutting the door and leaning on it. Barbara raised an eyebrow, ushering him on.
"Basically…" he began, taking a deep breath, "Rache has… kinda been… l-living here…" He bit his cheek as he looked at everyone's expressions. Artemis was shocked, Barbara was surprised, Johnno was confused and AJ was grinning like the Mad Hatter.
"Wait," Johnno said, "So she's not living with her mom?" Everyone in the room gave him a look to which he replied saying, "What?" Rachel chuckled softly before answering,
"No Johnno, I never actually met my mother. I'm here because uh…" she looked at Dick for reassurance before she continued,
"My father wasn't the best. He got drunk a lot, and he had a serious gambling addiction. The reason he died was because h-he owed a lot of money to the mob. And that was money we didn't have. So they tried to kill him, but someone managed to stop it and drive him to hospital. So I basically got a call at 2 in the morning from the hospital telling me what had happened and I went over there the next morning. The- the mob was there, they'd just killed him and shot me in the side. I went to Dick because my father did actually have a job at Wayne Enterprises and I did actually get really close to Dick and Bruce so that was just logical to me at the time. I was close anyway. So they rushed me off to a different hospital who stitched me up and I've been living here while I'm recovering. So… yeah."
Needless to say, Dick was impressed at her ability to lie on the spot. Everyone was shocked and soon they were all having a massive group hug. Dick asked everyone not to tell anyone else about it and they all immediately agreed.
Half an hour later, everyone had gone home. The two of them, now alone, went back up to Dick's room and flopped on him bed. Rachel sighed.
"I know what you mean now about having to lie." She said, "It felt awful." He nodded and plucked up the courage to ask her,
"So… last night." Rachel groaned, "We both know that that wasn't a normal nightmare." he said. He waited for a second before she turned to face him and relayed her disturbing dream. When she was done he lifted his eyebrows in surprise. Definitely not a normal nightmare. He didn't know what it meant, so he just nodded.
After chatting for a while, Dick sat up. He remembered something. Rachel raised an eyebrow at him and he grinned,
"You start training today. In like 5 minutes actually." Rachel sat up with him.
"Really?" she said, her beautiful violet eyes sparkling. Dick chuckled, before nodding. She jumped off of the bed and grabbed some shorts and a top, then raced off into the bathroom. Dick laughed at her, and he heard a muffled 'shut up Grayson' from inside, making him laugh even harder.
A few minutes later, she was out and she tied her short onyx-black hair back into a very short ponytail.
"Race ya!" She yelled, before speeding off down the stairs, leaving Dick to follow. For the first time since she'd gotten there, Rachel went down into the Batcave, which's entrance was behind a bookcase in Bruce's study. Dick remembered the first time he went down there and asking Bruce if it was cliché enough. He chuckled before following her.
When they walked into the cave, Dick led her to the training room. It was similar to the one at Mt. Justice, only in the corner, there were some uneven bars and trapeze equipment. Dick had expected Bruce to be there, as he assumed that the dynamic duo would be training Rache together, so he was quite surprised when he saw Selina Kyle in training clothes sparring with his adoptive father.
Dick cleared his throat to get the pair's attention, and they stopped the heated combat. Bruce introduced Rachel and Selina together, before telling her who she is and what she was doing here.
"Selina is here to help you train." He said in his usual stoic manner, "She is Catwoman, and although she doesn't steal anymore, she does sometimes go on patrol with me and Dick." Needless to say, Rache looked kinda shocked but she brushed it off before nodding.
Bruce left the room and they began. Selina first taught her some basic moves, using Dick as a dummy. They were mainly defensive, and supposed to unarm people, though some were a bit more aggressive, and Rache managed to nail all of them within a short period, very impressive.
They stopped sparring and sat down for a break, in which Selina began to talk about Rache's powers.
"So," She began, "What can you do?"
"W-well, I've always know I was a telepath, but last night, before everyone came to the manor, me and Dick were moving my mattress and I told him about these strange words that some girls had come up to me to say, and the mattress started glowing and it levitated." She said. Selina nodded before asking what happened.
"Dick told me to try and move it and it flew to the door. Then I kinda clenched my hand , and it stopped." Selina looked at her, emerald eyes sparkling, and asked if she would like to try it again. Rache nodded and stood up, closing her eyes. She said the strange words again; 'Azarath Metrion Xynthos' and when she opened them, her eyes began to glow white. Dick and Selina raised their eyebrows in surprise. That definitely hadn't happened before. Then, the uneven bars in the corner began to glow purple, like before, and Rache spread out her hand, rising it up and the bars followed her command. She clenched her hand into a fist and they fell. She blinked and her eyes returned to normal.
She turned around and smiled a bit shyly, blushing when she saw how much she had surprised them. Then, Selina grinned and told her that what she did was amazing, and Dick agreed. Selina told her to leave training at that for today, and they filed back up into the manor.
Dick didn't have much to do today, but Rache said she needed to get some homework done, so he flopped into his bed and started flicking channels on the TV. He got to 'Gotham News' and sat up rigidly when he heard what the reporter was saying.
" It has been confirmed, once again, the Joker has escaped from Arkham Asylum with the help of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Jim Gordon has assured us that he should be back behind bars soon, if Batman and Robin can help, but until then, most of you know the drill. Try not to go to too popular places, he's been known to hit those in the evening, and be wary of your surroundings. Back to you Helen."
Dick turned the TV off and sighed, throwing the remote to the foot of his bed. Joker escaped, again. Hopefully he and Bruce could get him back soon, but he always escaped again, at some point of another. To take his mind off it, Dick started to play a game on his Xbox for a while.
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Rachel was bored. She had 5 pieces of homework to do and only one of them was very fun. That was art, which she decided to do last but the others were mind numbing. She decided to listen to some music, so she put on her headphones, and played her favourite song ; Familia by Nicki Minaj, Angel AA and Bantu. As she was listening she stared to draw, just for fun now, not homework.
At first it was just shapes and lines, then her subconscious took over. She was so in-depth with her music that she didn't realised what she was drawing until she really looked at it. It was Him. The thing in her dream. She could still hear the echoing of his deep voice. She remembered what he had called her 'his little Raven'
Raven
She thought about it for a while, and mulled over the visions that she'd seen in those mirrors. She leaned back, chewing the end of her pencil and wondered why someone had given her father money to take a child, and who was the young woman in bed with Him? All the questions floated around her head, and she was trying to piece them together and if felt like something needed to click, but it just didn't.
She sighed and gave up on her drawing, taking her headphones off and flicking through the news, until she came to 'Gotham News' and she saw the exact same thing as Dick;
" It has been confirmed, once again, the Joker has escaped from Arkham Asylum with the help of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Jim Gordon has assured us that he should be back behind bars soon, if Batman and Robin can help, but until then, most of you know the drill. Try not to go to too popular places, he's been known to hit those in the evening, and be wary of your surroundings. Back to you Helen."
That didn't bode well with Rachel. Robin… Dick was going to go after the psychotic clown. She really didn't want anything to happen to them, then she realised, they were probably going to try and find him, tonight. That really didn't bode well. She continued to watch as it went on to other matters, only to find it quite boring, and switched it off.
She though of how Bruce and Dick were basically father and son. She remembered now what had happened to him in the circus, and she'd unknowingly watched live video footage of when his parents fell. She had cried.
Basically father and son… father and son… father. She looked back over to her drawing of Him on the desk. Father…
There was a knock on her door. Rachel jumped.
"Hey Rache, can I come in?"