Wayne Manor

8:15 A.M.

Rachel was in the shower so she never heard a knock on her door. Dick walked in her room and heard the shower and he knocked on the bathroom door.

"Rae? It's me?"

Rachel was little startled.

"Give me a minute I'm in the shower."

"I can wait. I'll be in your room when you're done."

Dick walked to Rachel's bed and sat down to wait for her to come out. After a few minutes he heard the water turn off and the door open to see Rachel step through the door with street clothes on; her hair was still dripping wet.

"Hey Dick, what's up?"

Dick was still sitting on the edge of the bed looking at Rachel.

"The funeral is at six so we have all day to get ready. The entire Bat-Family is going to be there so I think it's about time you learned one of the biggest secrets that the Batman has."

Rachel was excited to finally learn who or what the Bat-Family was but didn't want Dick to get in trouble for telling her.

"You're not going to get in trouble for telling me this are you?"

She sat on the bed next to him.

"No. Bruce expects me to tell you. He may not fully trust you, bet he trusts that I trust you."

A small smile crept on to Rachel's face, she knew he trusted her but for him to say it made it that much sweeter.

"The Bat-Family is a group of Batman's allies. People he trusts completely; which is a lot because I don't think he completely trusts anyone outside of the Bat-Family. Basically there are eight… sorry, seven of us now since Damian is gone. The members are Batman, Oracle, Red Robin, Red Hood, myself as I'm sure you guessed. The two you don't know are Batwoman and Batwing."

Rachel had never heard their names before.

"Who's Batwoman?"

"Her name is Katherine Kane. Daughter of Colonel Jacob Kane; formerly top of her class at West Point but was expelled and discharged because of the don't ask don't tell policy. She is Bruce's Cousin."

"And Batwing? Who's that? Or are you talking about Batman's jet?"

"Batwing is a person. Name's original I know. Anyway Batwing is Lucas Fox; Lucius Fox's son. Ex Special Forces, multiple successful missions. He was the only one with the qualifications to use the suit that Lucius created so he became Batwing."

"So they're all going to be here?"

"Yeah. Oh and Zatanna is coming to support Bruce, she wouldn't let him go through something like this without her here."

"Good. He needs all the support he can have today. I'm glad we came."

"Me too."

The room was quiet for half a minute, neither of them knew what to tell the other. Dick finally broke the silence.

"Well, I'll leave you to get ready. I need to help Alfred and Bruce set everything up then I need to get ready. I'll see you in a few hours Rae."

Dick stood up and walked out of the room.

Wayne Manor

5:15 P.M.

All members of the Bat-Family had arrived along with Zatanna. They were all hanging out in the common room waiting for the funeral to start. Rachel was meditating in her room; she never liked crowds. Dick was in his room getting into his tuxedo that Alfred had brought him. He always hated dressing up. There was a knock on Rachel's door, it was too heavy to be Dick.

"Come in."

Rachel turned around to see Barbara roll into the room in her wheel chair.

"Hey Rachel, everyone is here in the common room if you would like to join us. The Boy Wonder should be out soon."

Barbara had a huge grin on her face when she said that.

"I'll just be a few minutes, thanks Barbara."

Barbara just smiled and started for the door when Rachel asked a question she had been dying to hear the answer to.

"Hey Barbara, hold up. Can I ask you something?"

Barbara turned around and had a nervous look on her face, she knew what the question was.

"You want to know what's up with Dick and I don't you?"

Rachel was a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah. I mean I can tell you both have really strong feelings for each other, I can sense the emotion every time you speak to him or about him."

"Let's just say when he came back from the Teen Titans I had to make a choice between him and a guy from GCPD that I was seeing; I made the wrong choice. Then Amy was killed. We agreed to ignore our feelings and just be friends because it was simpler."

Raven smirked.

"That sounds familiar."

"I'm sure it does."

Just as Barbara answered there was a knock on the open door. They both turned to see who it was; Zatanna was walking into the room. She was wearing a white top with black lace at the top and black stitching along the front with black sleeves; a white bow tie around her neck and nets on her arms. Along with black leather pants and heeled boots that came to just below the knee. She was carrying her hat in her hand.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

Barbara headed for the door.

"Of course not. I was just leaving."

Barbara left the room leaving Zatanna and Rachel in the room.

"It's Rachel right?"

"Yeah, you're Zatanna I'm guessing?"

"Righto. I came to see if you were ready to join us in the common room."

"I'm not much of a people person, I'll head out when Dick is ready."

"He'll be out soon come on. Everybody is waiting."

"Okay I guess."

Rachel started walking towards the door with Zatanna when Zatanna stopped her."

"Wait, you can't go out there dressed like that. Don't you have anything a little nicer?"

Rachel looked down at her clothes and shrugged.

"This is all I have, I don't really have any nicer clothes than this."

Zatanna smiled and pulled out her wand and pointed it at Rachel.

"Sserd reh ni ecin kcalb sehtolc."

Zatanna waved her wand and magical energy surrounded Rachel. When it was gone Rachel was wearing a low cut dark blue sleeveless shirt with a black jacket that was cutoff at her lower back, the sleeves were rolled up to just below the elbow. A dark red circular jeweled necklace hung from her neck, it looked like the red orb on her costime. Black fingerless gloves, on each hand and black jeans with black combat boots. Rachel looked down to examine her clothes.

"These… aren't as bad as they could have been. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I guessed you would prefer black. Now go get Grayson and get your ass' out there before we start without you."

Rachel followed Zatanna out of the room, they split from each other as Zatanna went to see Bruce and Rachel went to check on Dick. She could hear grumbling coming from the room when she knocked on the door.

"It's open."

Rachel walked in and saw Grayson standing in front of a mirror tying his bow tie.

"Hey Rae, almost ready. I just need to tie this damn thing."

He turned around and looked at Rae, then he examined what she was wearing (more like he was checking her out).

"Where did you get those clothes?"

"Zatanna."

His eyes moved up and down some more then stopped as he stared for a few quick seconds at her chest then turned back around.

"Zatanna did well, they look good."

"Grayson, did you just check me out?"

He smirked.

"Not at all."

Rachel crossed her arms and took a step back.

"Uh huh. So I'm supposed to ignore the fact that your eyes locked onto my chest for two seconds?"

"Pretty much yeah."

He was still fussing with his bow tie.

"Ha! Gotcha! You just admitted to staring."

He smirked again.

"Damn."

He turned around to face her; his bow tie was a little crooked. Rachel stepped forward and put her hands on the tie to straighten it out.

"It amazes me that you can fight the way you do but when it comes to tying a bow tie; you're worse than Garfield."

Rachel straightened out the bow tie and fixed it so every part of it was underneath the collar. Dick then turned around and got the jacket and put it on. He turned around and looked at Rachel.

"Well what do you think?"

Rachel looked him from head to toe then smiled.

"You know what they say about a sharp dressed man."

"Yeah yeah. I hate dressing up like this. My range of movement is limited, and I feel like I'm going to a Wayne Charity Ball. I hated those things."

Rachel punched him in the arm.

"That's for staring, now come on let's go. Before the funeral starts without us."

They both started walking to find the others.

"Hey Rae, have you gotten any better at reading minds on a massive scale?"

"Yeah but not by much. It's still really loud and tough to focus in on individual minds while I'm reading everyone else's minds. Why?"

"I want you to do it. When we get out there read everyone's mind; try to discover their hidden intentions if any."

"You expecting trouble?"

"I always expect trouble. Especially after Donna's funeral; that was a mess."

"All right, I'll keep my mind open."

"If you suspect a threat or get a weird vibe from anyone, mark them for me through the link and I'll take care of the rest."

The time was five fifty; the funeral was about to start.

Wayne Manor

Front of the Manor

7:12 P.M.

The funeral was over but the crowd and press were still gathered in a massive heap outside the Manor in the driveway. The body of Damian had been laid inside the Wayne Family Crypt where Thomas and Martha Wayne were also inside. Bruce gave the eulogy; he made up some story about Damian being in a car accident. Of course everyone bought it. Bruce didn't get emotional, why would he? Zatanna never left his side. The whole Bat-Family was there in the front row; Katey Kane was with her girlfriend, Tim was there along with Jason who looked out of place; he wasn't wearing a suit, just a red t-shirt with a brown leather jacket, jeans and combat boots. He had his twin desert eagle pistols tucked away inside his jacket. Lucas Fox sat with his dad while Alfred and Barbara sat next to each other.

Dick was talking to Jason and Tim on the far side of the driveway; Rachel was away from the group of people using her telepathy on a massive scale trying to read everyone's intentions and looking for threats.

"Jason, Tim; it's been awhile."

Jason was the first to respond.

"Grayson, I heard you took down Black Mask in Bludhaven. Something about putting a drug into his system so his pacemaker would over work. Finally growing some balls after killing Blockbuster?"

"Yeah, kind of spur of the moment but I gave him the antidote as soon as he told me what I needed to know."

Richard looked to Tim.

"What about you Tim? San Francisco treating you okay?"

"Yeah. Everything is great, my dad and I are getting along again."

"How's Stephanie? You two still together?"

"Yeah, we have a small apartment overlooking the bay, it's beautiful."

Dick looked over at Rachel to make sure everything was good; they locked eyes and Rachel nodded signaling everything was good. Tim saw the gaze and had to say something.

"So, you and Rachel?"

Dick smiled.

"We ran into each other, she decided to hang around. Things between us are… Complicated."

Tim smiled. Jason looked over at Rachel and saw her focusing on the crowd. Jason spoke with a kind of mocking tone.

"Really Grayson? A Goth? Of all the girls you've put down, and you pick a former Titan and a Goth?"

"I'm going to go catch up with Katie, I'll see you guys before you head out."

Dick left Tim and Jason and found Katie talking with her dad and her girlfriend Margaret Sawyer.

"Little Katie."

Katie turned around to see Dick walking toward her.

"Richard Grayson, it has been awhile. Although I'd watch who I call little, I am older than you."

"How have you been?"

"Good. How about you?

"I'm alive."

"Have you forgiven yourself yet?"

"Not yet. Hey Margaret, how's the GCPD?

Margaret was an officer for the GCPD; Katie and she met during a charity ball for the GCPD and started dating.

"It's a living. Of course in Gotham it's a dangerous one."

"You two happy? I mean I know it's tough with Katie's extra activities."

Katie spoke.

"We're engaged Dick."

"I saw the rings, but congratulations."

"Don't think I didn't notice that girl in black you were sitting with, she's kinda hot."

Dick looked over at Rachel, she was still focusing; she wasn't going to stop until everything was clear she cared too much about Dick to stop focusing.

"Old friend from Jump City."

"Any intentions there Grayson?"

"I don't know… Maybe."

"Grayson, I saw the look in your eye when you looked over at her, I know that look. Keep her close, she'll help you forgive yourself."

Just then Dick heard Rachel's voice in his head.

"Dick! I sense something! Can't see them but I sense it!"

"Katie you and Margaret get someplace safe now! Somethings about to go down."

Dick looked around but didn't see anything out of the ordinary; just a mob of people and cameras and journalists trying to get a statement.

"Grayson! Dodge Challenger racing up the driveway, four armed men and a driver!"

Dick spun around to see the car, it was a red Challenger Hellcat.

"Good eye Rae! Get everyone near you to safety, don't blow your cover! I'll get to Bruce!"

Rachel yelled for everyone to get down, some people panicked and ran; others dropped to the ground. Dick took off at full speed across the driveway to where Bruce and Zatanna were talking with Lucius and Lucas.

"Bruce! Nine o clock! Get down!"

Bruce looked to see the speeding car right before the four men opened fire. The sound of four SMG's opening fire sounded; bullets sprayed everywhere. Bruce shoved Lucius and Lucas to the ground just as Dick closed the gap between him and Bruce. Dick tackled Bruce to the ground behind a car; the driver of the Hellcat pulled the e-brake drifted around the corner of the driveway with the gunmen still spraying bullets. The volley of bullets stopped; Jason popped out from behind a car, pulled out his .50 caliber desert eagles, and emptied both guns into the car hitting one gunman and shooting out both mirrors. Everyone was in a panic as the car drove out f sight, some people were behind cover or laying on the ground while most people were screaming and running trying to get away. Nobody knew if anyone was hit in the panic.

"Dick I'm good. Nobody around me is hurt, you hit?"

Dick looked over himself for wounds but didn't see any on him or Bruce.

"No, and neither is Bruce I think we're…"

Bruce's voice rang out.

"Lucius is hit!"

"Scratch that, Fox is hit!"

Dick looked over to see Lucius was shot in the chest near his heart, another one in his left arm.

Bruce took off his jacket and put pressure on Lucius' chest, Lucas tight his jacket aound his dads arm to slow the bleeding. Zatanna had taken over for Bruce who was talking to Alfred through an earpiece.

"Alfred, get the suit and car ready. And call an ambulance, Lucius was hit and is losing blood fast."

Dick was watching Zatanna put pressure on the wound when he heard Bruce talking to Alfred.

"Bruce, you go with Lucius to the hospital."

"No Dick, I'll handle this."

"Think about it Bruce, Lucius gets shot at a funeral for Bruce Wayne's son, and Bruce Wayne doesn't show up at the hospital? The press will have a field day, you go with Lucius."

Bruce was quiet thinking of his options; Zatanna broke the silence.

"He's right Bruce."

"Rae and I have got this. Besides, consider this her test."

"All right Dick, you're up."

Dick grabbed the earpiece from Bruce and started running toward Rachel; he used the link to talk to her.

"Raven, we're up."

"Got it."

Dick was heading toward the house when he heard Bruce cry out from behind him.

"Dick! Take the Car!"

A huge smile swept across his face. Zatanna called out next'

"Give them hell!"

He turned to face Zatanna.

"You've never seen Raven angry, they'll get more than hell."

Dick met with Rachel at the front of the house; as they walked inside Dick put the earpiece in to talk to Alfred.

"Alfred, its Dick. Bruce and Zatanna are going with Lucius to the hospital, Raven and I are going to find our party crashers. We're on our way to the cave. We're taking the car."

Rachel's eyes got wide as they ran down the hall.

"Rachel, meet me in the study, I need to grab our gear."

Rachel ran to the study and waited for half a minute, Dick came running into the room with his back pack in his hand. He went over to the grandfather clock and changed the time; the clock slid to the left revealing an elevator that took them to the cave. They both went into the elevator; Dick hit the down button and began to pull gear out of the bag.

"Come on, we'll change in the elevator."

"Wait you expect me to change now? In here? With you?"

"Oh come on, Babs and I used to change together in here all the time… and I should shut up now."

"Yes, you should."

"Look, you turn your back, I'll turn mine."

Dick already started to strip and put on his suit, as the elevator was halfway down the shaft.

"If I catch you staring at my boobs or my ass…"

Nightwing turned around to get his escrima from the bag, that's when he saw it; a tattoo of a raven on Rachel's lower back; its beak was pointed up like it was flying towards her shoulders. He grinned but didn't say anything. The elevator came to a screeching halt; Nightwing came out in full gear as Raven was still putting her cloak on. She clasped her cloak and walked out of the elevator to see Nightwing waiting for her.

"Forty eight seconds, Bruce would be disappointed with me. That's too slow."

As they both walked down the stairs to the platform Raven could see what she was excited about but also afraid of; The Batmobile. Alfred was standing next to the car waiting for them.

"Nightwing, I ran a systems check and everything seems to be working normally."

Nightwing popped the hatch and jumped into the driver's seat.

"Raven, get in."

Raven climbed into the passenger seat and started examining the inside of the car.

"Do be careful Master Dick, Bruce said the clutch was sticking last time he was out."

"Thanks Alfred, I'll head to places they are likely to hide. I need you to get into the traffic cameras and see if you can find that car. They are amateurs so they shouldn't be too hard to find."

Nightwing closed the hatch and fired the engine; there was a roaring sound that echoed through the cave. Nightwing put a hand on the shifter and had a huge smile on his face.

"It's been too long old friend."

Raven looked worried, and she had a reason to. She was sitting in The Batmobile; an armored car with enough firepower to win a war and a jet engine.

"You know how to drive this thing right?"

He smirked.

"Of course. I've been driving this since I was fourteen."

Nightwing put his foot on the clutch, shifted into gear and The Batmobile took off through the waterfall and out towards the city. Nightwing started heading towards places where the hitmen would hide out, he knew they were amateurs so they were inexperienced and knew they would leave a trail. They drove by chop shops and abandoned garages to see if they could find a trail, that's when Alfred contacted them.

"Nightwing I believe I have found our perpetrators, I just found a picture from a traffic camera of the car going into a garage in Midtown near the Red Hook district, I am forwarding the picture."

A picture of the car appeared on screen going into a moving company garage that had long since been abandoned. Alfred came through the comm again.

"It seems they ditched the car and got into a moving truck."

Another picture appeared on screen and showed the truck pulling out of the same garage.

"We're about a minute from there, I'll head in that direction and come at them from behind, the shooters are probably hiding in the back of that truck. Alfred can you track them and relay it to the car?"

"Of course sir."

A map of the city came up on screen with two dots, one showing The Batmobile, the other showing the truck.

"Hold on Raven, we have some ground to make up."

Nightwing shifted to a higher gear and put his foot to the floor; the car was speeding through the streets trying to make up time. They came around a corner and saw the truck in front of them, as they got close the back door opened up and there were now double the men inside, now eight shooters were pointing guns at them.

"It's about to get fun Raven."

"If that's what you want to call it."

All eight shooters opened fire at The Batmobile, the bullets weren't even denting the car; they were just bouncing off. Raven was almost laughing.

"Seriously?! Do they even know who's car this is?"

"I said the same thing ten years ago when I first became Robin. Of course The Batmobile has been upgraded a few more times since then."

Nightwing pulled The Batmobile beside the truck and put in on auto pilot.

"Raven, I need you to do something for me."

"Sure, what do you need Nightwing?"

Nightwing smirked.

"Vic taught you to drive stick right?"

Raven had a panic stricken look on her face, she didn't like where this was going.

"Yeah he did, but it's been years."

"Good."

Nightwing popped the hatch.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"Isn't it obvious? Oh and watch the clutch, it's sticking."

Nightwing launched himself into the air and landed on the top of the truck, Raven got into the driver seat and turned off the auto pilot and got behind the truck. The gunmen had no idea Nightwing jumped to the roof.

"What do you want me to do here Dick?"

Raven was using the psylink.

"Just keep following the truck, and if anyone falls out of the back, try not to run them over."

Nightwing looked ahead and saw that the road forked.

"There's a fork in the road ahead. Whichever way the truck goes you go, I want you to hit the clutch and pull the e-brake and turn hard, then let the back of the car catch up with the front wheels. Don't oversteer."

"I know how to drift Nightwing."

Nightwing stayed low on the roof of the truck and moved to the edge just above where the hitmen were inside the back of the truck. They were still shooting at The Batmobile. Nightwing looked to see the fork in the road coming fast.

"Fork in the road is coming up soon, I'm going to make my move when the truck turns."

The truck turned the corner and Nightwing slid into the truck knocking down two guys and surprising the rest, Raven pulled the e-brake and turned hard left. She slid around the corner almost perfectly; only thing she hit was a mail stand on the corner. Nightwing was inside the truck taking out the gunmen, it was more difficult in a confined space but the advantage of that was nobody could shoot at him. Another turn was coming up so Raven used the link to let him know.

"Nightwing, another turn head. This time to the right."

"Got it, I'll brace. If it's the turn I think it is its narrow and very sharp so be careful."

Nightwing had taken down five of the shooters by the time they got to the narrow turn but now he was fighting against three guys that had combat knives. Nightwing felt the truck and the wheels turn so he braced; the driver never slowed down so everyone in the back was tossed around. Nightwing slammed against the left wall along with one of the guys in the back. Nightwing was dazed after his head slammed against the wall leaving an opening. Raven hit the clutch and pulled the e-brake and turned but the corner was too narrow, The Batmobile slammed against the wall of a building. Rachel tried to accelerate but when she shifted she forgot about the clutch sticking and stalled the engine.

"Damn it!"

Nightwing took the knife to the back of his shoulder, the blade pierced through the titanium Kevlar weave and dug into his shoulder. He recoiled to catch his breath that's when he saw that Raven wasn't following.

"I stalled it!"

"I noticed. Start it and catch up, we need to finish this."

Nightwing took out the last three hitmen by the time Raven caught up in The Batmobile. Nightwing closed the back hatch as he climbed back onto the roof, Raven opened the hatch and moved over so Nightwing could drive again. She didn't know how to turn on auto pilot so she used her magic to steady the car as Nightwing landed in the driver's seat. He landed in the driver's seat as Raven dropped her magic giving Nightwing full control.

"Give them hell Raven."

Raven smiled as she summoned a large black raven in front of the truck causing it to swerve and crash into a post. Nightwing and Raven got out of the car and tied up the driver and the shooters, the driver was the one who had been shot by Jason; he had two bullet wounds in his shoulder. Because of Jason's sidearm being fifty caliber his shoulder was nearly detached. After they were all tied up, Raven walked behind Nightwing and saw the knife still sticking out of his shoulder. She used the psylink.

"There's a knife sticking out of your shoulder."

"Yeah, jackass on the left stabbed me when we went around that corner. It can wait."

Nightwing started interrogating them.

"Okay, I'm not in the mood for this so let's just get to the point. Who hired a bunch of amateurs to kill Bruce Wayne?"

The driver had passed out so Raven was keeping him stable with her magic. The rest of the men looked to each other expecting someone to crack, no one did.

"Look you guys are amateurs and probably new to this. So let me explain how this works; we have three ways we can do this, you tell me what I want, your friend goes to the hospital you guys feel no pain and don't waste my time. Two, I start breaking bones and force you to talk; releases a lot of stress for me, but hurts like hell for you. Or three, my friend over there? She's a telepath. Which means she can worm her way inside your head, now you can fight it, but that hurts worse than broken bones. The choice is yours."

One of the men tried to say something before another one cut him off.

"Don't you say nothin' Jimmy!"

Nightwing looked over to the one who told Jimmy to shut up.

"All right, don't say anything. I'll have my friend find the answer."

He looked over to Rachel who was now standing behind Nightwing.

"Raven! Do it."

"With pleasure."

Raven focused in in the guy's mind, he tried to block her out but she was too strong. He started to scream in pain as Raven dug deeper into his mind until she found the answer, but once she did the guy passed out from Raven overloading his senses.

"Roland Dagget hired them. He paid them all a huge amount to do it too."

"Good work Raven."

"All of you sit tight, cops will be here soon, and an ambulance."

Nightwing and Raven got back into The Batmobile and contacted Alfred who sent a message to Gordon and the GCPD. They then started back to the Manor.