CHAPTER 9
ROBIN

"I'M gonna be honest," Dick said, sliding into the driver's side of his car, "I really didn't expect you to ask me to come."

Iris sent him a look and took the passenger seat. Truthfully, neither did she. But this situation seemed to be more than she could ever handle. For once, she needed someone to help her through this. The weight of this stupid necklace was something she didn't want to bear alone. When she knocked on his office door that evening, even she was surprised at the words tumbling out of her mouth, asking him to accompany her on a trip back to St. Anne's after they both got off. Dick, obviously, agreed, willing to shove himself into any case with his lead detective. The Chief had given him a look of approval as they both left the station for the night.

"Let's just say I'm finally taking your advice," she answered, sinking back into the seat. "We could probably take some back roads to get there. There's going to be a lot of traffic at this hour and I know St. Anne's is closing soon."

Dick grinned big. "Or we could just ..." He suddenly flicked a switch, and the bright red and blue lights above his car began to flash wildly. His Porsche also functioned as a cruiser. She needed to soup up her car with those too.

Iris flashed a smirk, revealing the small gap between her two front teeth. Dick had never noticed it before, but maybe that's because she had never genuinely smiled in front of him. He swallowed hard before swiftly pulling out onto the road.

"This is devious," Iris giggled, watching the lines of cars move out of their way once they saw the red and blue lights. She punched the radio button and a heavy metal song began to blast out. "I kinda like it."

Iris held onto the sides of her seat as Dick began to steamroll through the lines of traffic. She laughed wildly and it sounded almost hyena-like to Dick's ears, but he wasn't afraid of it. In fact, he was delighted to hear her laugh around him, to express something other than hate. He glanced her for a second – just a mere second – but it was enough. Her smile didn't falter.

It was like they never had any bad blood at all.

A drive that would normally take ten minutes only took five. Just about everyone swerved out of the way as soon as the sirens came into view. Iris used to think that cops who did this were dickheads, but ... desperate times called for desperate measures, and she certainly was desperate. She didn't have time to wait in traffic when a goddamn Aztec relic hung around her neck at this very moment.

Dick skirted to a complete stop, almost jolting both of them from their seats. Iris and Dick rocked forward, but pressed their palms onto the dashboard before anything bad could happen. "Jesus," Iris muttered. She blinked fast, turning her head to glance at the sign outside her window. It wasn't lit up anymore. The shop was about to close.

"I gotta go now if I wanna catch Meleesa," she said, unlocking her seat belt and throwing the passenger door open.

Dick nodded and cut the engine. "Yeah, yeah. Got it." He jumped out and rounded the Porsche, but not before Iris could turn around. She held her hand out with a pointed expression.

"Uh – what are you doing?"

Dick raised a brow. "Going in with you?"

She wagged her finger in front of his face. "No, no, no. You stay in the car."

"Might I remind you that I am the first lead detective. Not you." He stuck his hands into of the lined pockets of his jacket. "I thought you wanted to work together."

"Listen, Mr. Know-It-All, I am," she quipped. "But if both of us go in, Meleesa's gonna think this is an interrogation. I just need to go in, ask her a few questions about the donator of this necklace, and then I'm out. We can go home and try to forget about this issue for the night."

Dick looked away for a moment, and then turned back to her. "Forgetting isn't going to make it go away, Iris."

She frowned. "I know that, okay? I know." Running a hand through her hair, Iris let out a heavy sigh and pointed in his direction. "Just let me go inside. I'll be back in five. Stay in the car."

"Whatever," he scoffed, turning on his heel to slip back into the driver's seat.

Iris head for the entrance, blowing a piece of dark hair out of her vision. For a moment, she felt a little bad for telling Dick off. He looked bothered that she hadn't asked him to go, and she guessed that he was right. He was the lead detective and should be going with her. But this wasn't just a case anymore. It was personal.

Her attitude was definitely a little rude, but when was she to care about his feelings? They were just coworkers. Nothing more.

She peered inside the large glass doors of St. Anne's, spotting Meleesa at the counter counting cash. The sign on the door said CLOSED, but it wasn't locked. To Iris, that basically meant she could go inside. She pushed on the door handle and the bell above her head rang. Meleesa's eyes snapped in her direction. They were anxious at first, but upon recognizing the detective, her expression softened.

"Detective Kingsley," she greeted with a quick smile. "I didn't expect you to come by. I'm just about to close up, so I don't have much time to talk. What do you need?"

Iris approached cautiously, anxiety crawling up the base of her throat. She wasn't sure when the lights were going to start again, and the sudden shiver crawling up her spine made her wary.

"Um –" Iris ran a hand through her hair, throat running dry. She laid her hands on the counter. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Maybe some answers."

Meleesa tilted her head to the side. "Can you come back tomorrow and we can talk then?" She asked, placing the cash inside a safe below the counter. With a swing of her hip, she shut the register.

"I don't think so," Iris pressed on. "This is kinda urgent."

"I really have to get home, Detective," Meleesa replied. She unlocked a ring of keys from her belt loop and made her way towards the counter's exit.

Iris blocked her path, causing Meleesa to jerk back. She wasn't exactly sure why she was acting like this – so rash – but she wanted answers and she wanted them now. Meleesa was the one who brought this stupid necklace to her. She had to know something.

"You really don't understand how important this is," Iris huffed. "I need to know who donated this necklace."

"I told you," Meleesa said while shoving past the detective, "it was an anonymous benefactor."

"How? Why?" She continued, plucking a pamphlet from a pile next to the register. Iris followed the owner to the front entrance, where she was setting up the security lock. "It says in here that in order to donate to St. Anne's, your items must be clean and washed, and you must provide your information to contact you. All donators will receive twenty percent of their sale. You need a donator's identity."

Meleesa swiftly turned in her direction, and Iris backed up the slightest bit. "I know how it goes. But like I've said dozens of times, the donator was anonymous. The package was left outside the door with no information. I thought it could make me a good profit, and I wouldn't have to give the benefactor their percentage of sales because there was no identity attached to it. I usually don't accept donations like that, and the necklace never made any money anyways, but it was too beautiful to pass up." She reached out and curled her fingers over the turquoise pendant. "And look, now it's beautiful on you."

Iris followed Meleesa out as she turned off the lights and locked the door from the outside. She slapped her hands at her sides. "You must know something –"

"Why are you so interested?" The owner raised an inquisitive brow. "What's wrong with it?"

She closed her hand over the stone, voice lowering to a whisper, "Nothing."

"Then I think our conversation is over," Meleesa said, a soft smile tugging at the edge of her lips. For a second, Iris thought she saw a flash of pity in her eyes, like she knew something was wrong, but was too scared to say it. "Goodnight, Detective."

With a roll of her eyes, Iris turned around and wiggled her fingers in the owner's direction. "Goodnight, Meleesa," she sighed, heading for Dick's car around the corner.

Iris did, admittedly, feel a little defeated as she sauntered back to her ride. She stuck her hands in her pockets and dipped her head inside the collar of her parka, protecting herself against the harsh chill. Maybe it was stupid to assume that Meleesa had the answers she was looking for – I mean, she had told her originally that the donator was unknown – but she was her only option at the moment. The last thing Iris wanted was an old WordPress blog to be the source of all her current information.

Why would someone want to donate this necklace in the first place? To burden a random person? Did the benefactor know about what this necklace could do? Why would they send it anonymously when they could've received a percentage of the sales?

Iris Kingsley was a realist. She knew that she'd never get the answers to her questions.

As she rounded the corner of St. Anne's, she noticed Dick leaning against the driver's side of his car. She shook her head. Sometimes, he made it seem like he was trying too hard to look cool, or maybe his awkwardness made him oblivious to that fact. She didn't really know. Iris stalked over, opening her mouth to call out his name, but then she was rendered speechless.

A hand clasped itself over her mouth.

Iris' shriek was muffled against the large hand that was suddenly yanking her backward. She saw Dick's head turn towards her before everything went black. Someone had put a bag over her head. She began to punch the air around her, hoping she'd make impact with a body, but there was nothing. She felt powerless without her sight.

"IRIS!" Dick hollered. He sounded a million miles away.

The people behind her started speaking a language she didn't know. It sounded like Spanish, but there was something off about it.

This was not happening. Absolutely not. Iris Kingsley wasn't a victim and never would be.

She clenched her hands tightly, ripping herself away from the grip that tried to pull her away. Iris swung her leg out and her foot collided with someone's gut just a few feet from her. She felt another presence behind her. She heard the whoosh of their arms trying to wrap themselves around her neck. Iris trusted her instincts before whirling around and sending her fist into their face.

She ripped the bag off her head, blinking her eyes enough to focus on someone beating a guy with a ski mask into the ground. Her hands began to burn and throb, but for the first time, she was grateful to see the lights. Her necklace felt heavy against her neck, but the weight just reminded her that this was real, and she wasn't going to die in this nightmare.

She turned slowly, eyes flashing a bright turquoise color as she faced the group of rogues, all adorning the same ski masks. From what she could see under their masks, it looked like they were wearing the same necklace. As she flexed her hands, she wondered if she could use their jewelry to strangle them.

It felt like someone – or something – had taken over her body. Before Iris could think, she lifted her hand, and the blue light gripped one of the rogues so tightly that they went rigid. The other two could only watch. Iris did the same action to another one, and with a flick of her wrist, they were tossed against the brick wall to her right.

The last one whipped his head in her direction. They were frozen in place.

Four men down. Two more a few feet behind her, fighting with who she presumed was Dick in the back ally. One left to go.

The person turned away, lifting their leg to sprint off in the opposite direction, but Iris was suddenly faster. She locked her arm around the person's throat, dragging them back into the moonlight. They looked up at her from the small eye holes in their ski mask, and they were full of fear. Iris never had someone look at her like that before. It made her a little scared too.

She locked her fingers around the silver necklace, bringing it out into the light. A small, turquoise stone in the shape of a droplet dangled from the chain. Her bright eyes flickered back to the culprit, full of rage and fury, and when she spoke, her voice sounded like she was talking through a bullhorn: "Who are you?! Why won't you leave me alone?!"

The culprit could only lift their hands in surrender. Iris was impatient and tired of waiting.

"FUCK YOU!" She screeched, twisting the necklace just enough to hold them there. The person started to choke in her grip. Iris let her instinct take over, and she brought her hand down, allowing the intense light to hover right over the person's eyes. Before she knew it, the culprit was screaming, eyes turning a stark white.

She was making them blind.

The longer she held her hand there, the worse it got. Iris clenched her teeth, watching the person's eyes burn and decay. Blood bubbled from underneath their lashes and spilled onto the thick, cotton mask. She didn't care about their identity, their story; she just wanted to watch them burn. These people – whoever they were – had to be after her and she would not let herself become a black and white photo on the front page of the Detroit Free Press.

The person fell limp in her grasp. She released them quickly, refusing to let even a drop blood touch her hands. But it would always be there, like a constant reminder of all her regrets. Iris looked around the area, wanting to scream and shout at the destruction she caused. She knew, however, that having a frantic episode would not help. Iris took in a deep breath and allowed her whole body to relax.

The lights dimmed. Her necklace settled against her chest. Everything felt normal again.

When she opened her eyes, Iris heard one last punch and a haunting grunt. She licked her lips, approaching the back alley where the sounds had resonated from. "Dick?" She called out, walking with caution. "I think – I think I did something really –"

But the person that came out of the ally wasn't Dick. It was someone else entirely. Someone that Iris would've never remotely associated with Dick. Someone she once thought was a myth.

It was Robin. Like, Batman's Robin.

Dick Grayson was Robin.

•••

A/N: huehuehe here we go people!! our girl finally knows!!!!