Between the fight and Dick's in-depth assault on my senses and body, I fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep that night. No nightmares to plague me, no unwanted visits from my douche wad twin. Just utter peace and the rise and fall of Dick's chest against my back as we slept. When I woke up the next morning, still encased in his arms, I never wanted to leave the moment. It was everything I'd been missing for years and all I wanted now was to keep it forever.

So I laid there in a haze somewhere between bliss and sleep, soaking it all in with a soft smile. I had no idea how much time had passed but eventually Dick began to stir next to me, his muscles stretching behind me carefully as though trying to avoid disturbing me. Before I could respond in anyway, the trill of his phone from the bedside table sounded and  he turned to answer it. I only let him half roll towards it, keeping my head against the other arm and groaning into the bend, earning a light chuckle.

"Hello?" I heard him answer, his voice still thick with sleep. He cleared his throat but otherwise remained silent as, I assumed, the caller spoke from the other end of the line. "Yeah? What time?" More silence. I turned to face him, watching his expression for any clue to the conversation. More than anything, I could only pick up tiredness with mild annoyance. Otherwise he seemed calm; so definitely not news in regard to my brother.

Which left me with a slew of mixed emotions that I didn't want to think about.

"Yeah, I think we ran into him last night actually. I'll have the team look into it. Thanks for the heads up." Dick hung up and put his phone back on the table before turning back to me.

"Who and what was that about?" I asked.

"Well good morning to you too," he said with a roll of his eyes. I rolled mine back, leaning up to peck him on the jaw.

"Morning," I said pointedly. "Now who and what was that about?"

"Not Roman," Dick answered a little bitterly and I winced. He caught the reaction but said nothing about it. "That was Roy. That guy we saved last night? Apparently he's some sort of Meta that's been on A.R.G.U.S radar for a while. He can teleport, which explains his disappearance, and he's been using it to steal from banks and jewelry shops across the country."

"Okay...and why does that concern the Titans? A.R.G.U.S isn't exactly known for its professional courtesy."

Dick scoffed. "Yeah, no, I don't even think that's in their vocabulary," he returned. "Roy was calling as a favor. I asked him to give me a heads up on anything related to your brother or CADMUS in anyway. They don't know exactly what purpose he had, but apparently he was in deep with CADMUS for awhile before he broke out on his own. He may not be of any help to us, but it couldn't hurt to see if he knows anything helpful. He could even get us into a facility that's still active, get us some more intel..." He trailed off, likely surprised by my silence.

I didn't really have anything to say though.

If this guy could teleport, the odds of us catching him were slim, let alone keeping him around. A problem A.R.G.U.S had clearly been having for awhile. "So the ever elusive Roy Harper just drops some info out of the kindness of his heart? The same Roy who challenged your appointment as leader and ran off like a pissy little bitch after I made him do the limbo nude in front of everyone in the training room?" I'd been practicing control of my pheromones at the time and overheard Roy making a comment about Dick being too caught up in me to function right as a leader. I was also irritable and on my period; his words just came at a bad time.

Dick fought and lost to keep his smirk at bay. "That'd be the one, though I wouldn't say it was from the kindness of his heart."

"Of course not, because that would require an actual heart," I scoffed. "Which he doesn't have and is why he works with A.R.G.U.S to begin with and is probably why he shared that info with you. They got tired of looking like a bunch of dumbasses and figured they'll put us on the case to get him before swooping in and taking him from us."

"Or Roy is doing is this as a favor to Donna because he knew how close you two were and how much she would've appreciated the help," Dick countered calmly as I blinked up at him in surprise.

"Why would-- I mean-- Is that what happened?" Dick only nodded. "Well damn. Guess I can't call him an asshole anymore."

"For awhile, anyway," Dick amended with a light laugh.

"For awhile," I agreed with a smile. "Anyway, what are we going to do with this guy, what's the plan?"

"There is no plan," Dick shrugged. "He's not really a priority for me."

"Then why did you tell Roy you'd have the team on it?"

"Because I'll put them on it, but its not exactly top of my list. Finding and stopping. Roman is my main concern. I don't want Gar and the others involved in that anymore than you do. I put them on this mission instead and it's a win- win; we keep them safe and they get out of my extreme daily training sessions. plus, if you end up right and A.R.G.U.S takes the kid after we manage to find him, I'll be less annoyed."

"Liar," I called him out and he smirked. "Did Roy at least give you a name to work with?"

Dick sat up and sighed one of my least favorite sounds; the one that means our private moments are coming to an end for now. "Yeah, he did."

******

"Aiden Morris," Gar said with a yawn, pulling information on to the screen as he spoke. He'd been heading back to his room from an all night gaming session when we crossed paths with him and Dick enlisted him to join us in the communications room for his quick searching expertise. As bad as I felt for the kid, there was no denying he was quicker at hacking and tracking than even Dick. A fact I made sure to commend Gar on frequently so he knew he was appreciated. "He's about 23, but there isn't much on him from before he was 18. Apparently he was in the foster care system and kept bouncing around between homes because of 'unexplainable incidents' until about 14 when he first disappeared. He showed up on a few cameras across the country every once in awhile, but always in different states in short amounts of time. Nothing long enough to give the illusion that he lived there permanently."

"He obviously hasn't been on A.R.G.U.S radar his whole life, then, or he wouldn't still be a pain in their ass now," I said. "So if those unexplainable incidences aren't what put him on their radar, it had to be something he did between when he turned 18 and now. What was it and how exactly does it involve CADMUS?"

"He was one of their experiments," Gar said gently, likely immediately feeling the tension starting to radiate off of Dick. A muscle at his jaw flexed as he stared at the monitor's before us, waiting for Gar to go on. Truthfully, so was I.

Any chance to learn about a fellow experiment was one I would jump to take.

"According to their logs, he was a known teleport his whole life and they used his DNA on other subjects. They wanted to see what they could pair it with to create a perfect agent," Gar continued before looking over to me. "What they did to him was nothing like what they did to you. His purpose was literally just to harvest his genes and power. There's nothing here to suggest that they spliced him with anything while they had him. If anything, they kept him in a coma and stored somewhere."

"Which would make him a victim," I voiced aloud, more for my own thought process than anyone else. "Why would ARGUS be hunting down a victim?"

"Maybe they want to use him in their own way too?" Gar offered. "Having someone on their team that could teleport could make all the difference when they're trying to catch another Meta. Definitely saves them travel costs."

"That's too simple and obvious for them," Dick said, leaning over to work on the keyboard himself. "Besides, Roy isn't dumb enough to ask for my help with something like that."

"Then what else could it be?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, we need to find him soon."

"Why?" I asked, confused by the sudden shift in his tone.

"Because I think I know who sent those thugs after him last night. And if I'm right, ARGUS is going to be the least of his problems." Before I could ask more, he pulled up two files on the screen.

One was a photo of Aiden talking to what was probably the last people I ever would've expected; my parents. My very dead parents, looking as though they were inspecting a slightly younger version of the boy we'd seen the night before. The second was street footage of Aiden suddenly popping into existence before an ATM camera and walking away as though he'd been there all along. Just as I was about to question what Dick's big revelation was, I saw it in the distance. It was subtle at first, a small staticky area across the street, and then it grew into the full silhouette of a person. Finally, they came into a slightly blurred view and my eyes widened; Hurricane.

"Source data confirms this video is from two months before you came back," Dick said once he saw the realization on my face. "Before he died. I don't think it's a coincidence he showed up here."

"He was following him," Gar said, momentarily startling me. I'd been so surprised between seeing my parents and Daniel with this guy that I'd forgotten Gar was there. "And if he was following him, it was probably..."

"On Roman's orders," I finished dryly. Just saying my brother's name aloud left a bad taste in my mouth. "The question is why?"

"Another Meta with the ability to pop in and out wherever he needs him to? Not the worst recruit," Gar answered.

"True, but what would he need him for?" I insisted. "This was two months before I came back which means it was two months before he knew I was alive. What was he planning on doing that he needed Aiden for? He already had Hurricane for quick access, so what was so important that he needed Aiden too?"

"You think he's more than just a teleport?" Dick asked curiously. I felt his dark gaze on me but my eyes were zeroed in on the photo again, as if I could pull anything useful from it if I stared hard enough. As if it could speak to me. God, didn't I wish; I had more than a few choice words for them.

"Maybe," I finally replied. "Or maybe Roman thinks he knows something useful. Honestly, there's too many options to be sure--"

"Which is why we need to find Aiden," Dick finished. "He can at least shed some light on something."

"I can run his face through the systems, hack any sort of camera footage that he might show up on. Even if he's not still in San Francisco, we'll be able to track him and see if he has any patterns," Gar offered, his fingers already twitching towards the keyboard.

"Sounds great, Gar, thanks," Dick said.

I blinked away from the monitors to look down at him and smile. "Yeah bud, thanks," I agreed, bumping his shoulder. "But do me a favor, do whatever you have to do to set it up for alerts and then get some sleep. You're starting to look like a raccoon without actually shifting into one."

Gar laughed and nodded, getting to work, I look over at Dick who had turned to glare at the still blurred image of Hurricane. Even with him dead and no longer a problem, it was as if he was Dick's biggest enemy, second only to Roman. He'd barely interacted with him but there was no mistaking how much he hated him. I didn't understand it until I asked him one night a few weeks back.

"You ask like I don't have the right to," he said, eyebrows raised.

"I'm not saying you don't, I'm just trying to understand why you do so much," I clarified. "I mean, you hated him from the moment you saw him in the club."

"Actually, I hated him before that."

"Why?" I insisted.

"I don't want to tell you, its embarrassing."

I'd sat up in the bed next to him so fast, it was more like a bounce. "See, now you have to tell me," I insisted. "Because Dick Grayson and embarrassed are not two things often paired together. Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell m--"

His hand came up to cover my mouth . "If I do, will you shut up?" I licked his palm in response but instead of being bothered, he laughed. "Fine," he sighed with a shake of his head. "I don't like the way he acted about you; like you were his and his only. Like he'd had you before and that gave him a right to you."

I pulled his hand down from my face. "Are you telling me the reason you hate him so much is because you were jealous of Hurricane? Are you high on something? I wanted nothing to do with him!"

"At the time, sure," Dick replied. "But when you were younger, before we met, maybe it was different."

"That just may be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard you say," I scoffed. "I mean honestly, Grayson, you're supposed to know me better than anyone. Off the top of my head, there are two perfectly good reasons I can think of for why that's ridiculous. For one thing, we don't know when the deadly pheromones developed in me, so I could very well never have had a relationship with anyone else let alone Hurricane Asshole."

"Maybe," he conceded with a shrug, bending one arm behind his head on the pillows. "What's the second reason?"

I rolled my eyes. "He's very clearly not my type," I answered. "At the risk of sounding like an Old Spice commercial, I want you to think of him and then look at you. He was not you and never could be. Memory or not, you're the only one I've ever wanted." He smiled lightly at my words, his eyes tightening a little and giving him away. It was my turn to sigh as I flopped back down on the bed beside him. "Now that I've explained away the bull shit reason, why don't you tell me why you really hate him."

Dick stayed silent for a moment, staring up at the ceiling and making me think he was either going to deny or say nothing. Once he did, part of me wished that he hadn't. "He was the reason you died, Madds. Not just that it was his people who pulled the trigger, but it was actually his fault. His obsession with you and what he felt for you kept him on you and it cost you your life."

"If the rest of this explanation is going where I think it is, you need to shut up right now."

"You asked," he shrugged and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Yeah because I didn't think the answer would be so stupid. You and Hurricane are two entirely different people. How you feel is way different; if you could stop it, you would never let anything happen to me. We've literally broken up because of it. Yours is real love, his wasn't."

"To him it was," Dick countered. "And if he couldn't keep it from hurting you, who's to say I can?"

I kept quiet, not knowing what to say.

I could've tried arguing anyway, but what would've been the point when we both knew it was something I worried about myself when it came to him. Instead of trying to give us false comforts, I'd kissed him and guided us away from the conversation altogether. Now, weeks later, as I watched him glare at the image on the monitor, I still didn't know what to say or do.

God, I wish we had normal problems.

Hey guys!
So sorry for such a long wait on this chapter! I honestly didn't realize so much time had passed since the last update. I've had a lot going on in my personal life so I haven't had as much time as I would've liked to focus on my fics. I will definitely try to make the next update sooner than this one 😅

Anyway, you know the drill! Feel free to comment letting me know what you think of everything so far and even any theories you have. I always love reading em. 😊