Dick's POV
On arrival to the convent, Dick was greeted to the sight of chaos.
Emergency service personnel littered the area like ants scouring over breadcrumbs, as blinding lights seemed to mark this as a spot of great danger.

His heart beat erratically inside his chest, so much so he felt ill: where was she?? Please, don't let her have been inside.
Hurriedly scanning the area for her, he began to sprint over to Harper once he caught sight of her pacing form.

The thundering rhythm of his shoes against the tarmac wasn't enough to get her attention; so he slowed his pace just enough to gently thread his fingers around her arm, drawing her around into his arms.
He tucked his head into her neck as he wrapped his arms tightly around her in a rare display of affection, breathing her in as he whispered: "You're okay. Thank God, you're okay."
Relief flowed through him: she was okay- rigid from the shock of Dick actually hugging her- but okay.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. But Dick, Rachel... she..."

He cradled the back of her head as he quickly assessed any damage to her already bruised body, just as quickly letting his eyes shoot back up to hers. Her hands held his elbows as she watched him. One final check of her wellbeing before he exhaled and let go.

He also let go of one slight strand of worry, and focused his attention on his other responsibility- Rachel.
"Dick, Rachel did this. She lost control and bolted. I tried tracking her but haven't caught any sight of her. The nuns have started spewing rubbish about 'not being able to stop it now', but from the sounds of it they tried to lock her up- stupid idiots. She must have been scared and panicked, I reckon the spike in adrenaline made her lose control, but I can't be sure."

"She's getting more powerful." Kori anxiously said, letting them both know she was still there. Dick suddenly felt a bit awkward at his dramatics, before focusing on the task at hand rather than the slight reddening of his cheeks.

"Yeah, but she's still a kid; alone and scared and on the run." Dick replied, "We need to find out if anyone's spotted her recently."

Harper jumped in with a suggestion, literally hopping on her feet as she spoke: "Police Station. Let's go."

The three adults quickly made their way into the Porsche and left the smoking wreckage behind.

~time skip~

Harper's POV
Harper counted staying in the car with Kori as one of her better ideas; all of the running and stress that day had made her entire body ache, but mostly her ribs. Her tender ribs felt completely raw.
Wincing as she shuffled loudly to get more comfortable, Harper's attention flicked up to an observant Kori.

Harper gazed openly at Kori mid-movement, her eyes wide and curious, like a deer caught in headlights, "Yes?"

"What's the deal with you and Dick? I thought you guys were just friends, but that hug at the convent seemed more than platonic." Kori raised an eyebrow into the air whilst a shit-eating grin adorned her lips.

Ok, definitely not what I was expecting, Harper thought. Scornfully, she replied: "This hardly seems like a suitable convers-"

"Oh please, if we don't talk now, when will we? From the looks of it, our lives won't be 'normal' for a long time."

"My life was never normal." Harper shrugged lightly, then sighed as she gave in. "But neither was Dick's. We grew up together. I don't see any way how we couldn't have gotten close. Sometimes I just wish I wasn't closer to him than he was to me."

"How so? Seems like he's pretty close to you from where I'm standing- or, more accurately, from where I was standing 15 minutes ago, watching him cling onto you for dear life."

"Kori," Harper tilted her head disbelievingly at her, "Dick Grayson isn't exactly a romantic sweetheart. I have no idea what came over him, but it probably means nothing. He was probably just a bit worried."

Kori sucked her teeth and shook her head as she spun back around to face the front: "Trust me girl, hugs like that always mean something."

Before she could utter one word of reply, Dick reentered the car, "We've got a lead, and a name. He might've had a run in with Rachel."
Dick placed the keys in the ignition as Harper leaned back.

She wanted to sleep and get as much rest as possible, but Kori's interrogation had set her mind into overdrive. She was right though, hugs like that don't mean nothing...

~time skip~

By the time the arrived at the literal cabin in the woods, (yeah, Harper wasn't exactly supporting this guy as anything but a mass murderer), Harper had managed to get some rest. So much so, she felt strong enough to join Kori and Dick on the interrogation...

Something she realised was definitely going to be harder than expected when the man behind the door politely asked them to 'fuck off'.
Dick caught the closing door with his foot, resulting in the man drawing a gun.
Dick's hand darted out and grabbed it like a nail to a magnet, disarming the man before barging into the house.

The tense atmosphere quickly escalated into an all out fist fight. One Dick promptly won.
Harper couldn't pull her eyes off their joined forms as they leaned against a coffee table.
Dick was mercilessly beating the man, yelling questions at him but never really waiting for an answer.

Dick continued to throw punch after punch, yell after yell, and still Harper stood frozen- too trapped in her own mind to stop him.
'What the hell happened to him?'
The piercing and numbing sounds of pure violence poured over Harper, reminding her of the last time she had heard such things...

Harper couldn't see anymore. The violent beatings had damaged her eye sockets amongst multitudes of other things.
Crusty blood coated her filthy skin, her clothes hanging off of her in ripped tatters. Sad excuses of rags all that remained of her jeans and shirt.
She had almost given up; she was trapped here, all six attempts at escape had failed and earned her more severe punishments. She had lost track of time, but she knew she'd been here for at least a week.
And they still hadn't asked her any questions.

No one was coming for her. If Dick and Bruce wanted to find her, they would have by now. After all, Batman and Robin weren't easily stopped.

Trying to keep her muscles working, Harper did small, excruciating movements with her joints, encouraging them not to lock and become even more painful.
As she focused on slowly rotating her left ankle, muffled yells and the sound of gunfire floated through the air.
The sound was easily recognisable to her- it was the sound of fighting. But she had never heard so many accompanying yells of pain and terror before.

Harper didn't want to hope again, so she tried to tell herself pitiful excuses as to what the noises were, instead of allowing herself to believe she was about to leave this hellhole.
Besides, she couldn't even scream to tell them where she was, or move to make enough noise. She was completely helpless, and she despised it.

Suddenly, Harper heard the sound of a warehouse door being thrown open and chains falling. She could feel warm air flood the room, no doubt as the light was too. The sounds of the extremely violent fighting had stopped. No more bones were breaking, no more bullets were being fired. No more begging for it to stop.

Shaking from exhaustion, fear and hope, Harper tried to lift her head and call out, but nothing cane from her throat other than a croak. She kept trying and trying, until finally-

"Dick, stop!" Kori's voice shot out, pulling Harper out of her memories.
Following Kori's suggestion, Dick stopped beating the man and promptly left after seeing the young boy watching him.

Harper shook herself out of her stupor and followed after him.
Confronting him, she looked back at Kori and urged her to give them a minute.
"Dick, what the hell was that?" She pressed.

He couldn't even meet her eyes as he replied, "That is why I left. I was scared."

"Of what?" Harper was whispering now, scared to break the tender atmosphere Dick created by being so open.

Finally, he turned his gaze to her. "Of hurting you."

Realisation dawned on Harper: "That's why you were planning to leave Rachel as well. You were scared you would get her hurt."

He nodded, unable to reply.
"Dick, you never hurt me. Not once. You aren't a bad person, you just need to stop letting your demons control you. And right now, Rachel needs us- she needs you. I'm not scared of you."

Stepping past him to get to the car, she softly touched his shoulder to let him know it was okay.
Dick soon got into the car, swiftly followed by a silent Kori.

~time skip~

On arrival to the manor Kori had heard about from the man, Harper's eyes widened. The lights inside the grand old building were pulsating like something straight out of a horror film.
Gut instinct told her Rachel was here. And she was the one pulsing the lights.

"Let's go."

Walking through the yawning door, Dick called out "Hello?!"
No reply.

"Did you seriously think that was gonna work?" She skeptically eyed him as they walked into another room, "We're entering a spooky old fashioned house, and now you've probably angered the ghosts. So congrats on earning yourself some lifelong ghost companion to haunt you until-"

"get out."

The living room air suddenly cooled.

"GET OUT!"
Pivoting to face the voice, they were faced with a woman who's face looked melted. Dick drew Harper to his side.
Clanging thumps and the sounds of gears turning caught their attention. Spinning around yet again, they were faced with, what the hell?
A robot man and a mummy. Great, just great. Harper, you've stumbled into a Scooby Doo episode. Congratulations on fulfilling a childhood dream.

Even her thoughts sounded sarcastic. Damn.

A piercing scream filled the air.
"Rachel." Dick and Harper spoke simultaneously, turning to look at each other in shock afterwards.

"Dick, Harper- go." Kori spoke.

Nodding at each other, they sprinted towards the source of the scream.
Kori can take them, Dick had informed Harper of Kori's badass-ery and abilities.

Speeding through the house, they finally reached some sort of viewing platform above a surgical theatre. Below them, Rachel stood in front of some sort of portal, whilst a cloud of intimidating black tendrils swirled around her.

Dick yelled out, "Rachel!"

Dashing down the stairs, they tried to get past the tundra of liquid black mass.
Shielding his face, Dick pushed on, and, (for fear of overcrowding the girl), Harper stayed back.
She had faith in Dick- he would come through.

Dick's POV
When he reached her, Rachel was screaming into a void, only to turn and face him.
"You're going to die! You need to get out of here, before it's too late!"

Noting the blackness of her eyes, Dick persevered. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I don't want to hurt you." Rachel whimpered.

"Listen, I was wrong. When I told you no one can help you."
Harper had finally convinced Dick. He could help Rachel, and he would.

Rachel continued to beg him to leave: "You need to leave! Please!"

"At the church. I said you're on your own. Ok, I was wrong! You're not on your own! Ok? You have me. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere, okay? I'm not going anywhere. Here I am. I'm right here. It's okay." 
Slowly he pulled a crying Rachel into his chest, wrapping his arms over her shaking form.

Finally she calmed down, allowing the portal and tendrils to disappear. Looking back to Harper, Dick saw her smile proudly at him.
He smiled back.

~time skip~

Harper's POV
Finally dragging Rachel away from her goodbyes, Harper stood by the car, watching the green-haired youth Rachel had met.
Saying his goodbyes, Harper warmly smiled at him.
One more person for their odd little group. At least Rachel would finally have someone her age to talk to.

After packing everyone into Dick's Porsche, Harper finally relaxed into the informal greetings, during which her stomach decided to join in with a grumble.
"Anyone hungry?" Dick called out.

"Ughh, ME!" Energetically looking at Gar and Rach, she asked "What do you kids want? Pizza? Burgers? Tacos? 5 star sushi? I don't mind- as long as Dick's paying."

"We are not getting sushi, Harp."

Winking at the kids sat next to her, Harper replied "Sure we aren't."

Glancing at Kori, Harper mouthed: 'We are so getting sushi', to which Kori laughed and nodded.
Dick, seeing everything in the rear view mirror, simply shook his head, resulting in Harper innocently shrugging her shoulders with a "What? I like sushi."

A/N:
Hope you guys enjoyed! 🥰
Please forgive me for the slow updates, I promise next chapter will be a lot juicier!! 😉
Stay safe,
Lyra Xx