Max, Chelsea, and Dana invited Xiara to head out to lunch with them. Bruce gladly shoved her out to go with them. Dana and Terry have gotten back together, but that's not gonna be much longer. The virtual news anchor speaks on the large screen beside them.

"They live beneath our streets. They lurk within the shadows. They devour innocent victims, causing them to disappear without a trace. Who are these scourges of the sewers? Today, news byte exposes the hidden shame of Gotham–"

"Uch! There goes my appetite," Chelsea groans annoyed, pushing her food away.

Max and Chelsea are on one side of the table with Dana and Xia on the other.

"Reality check, Chels. That's just a load of media hype. An urban legend," Max tells her.

"I don't know, Max. Remember that girl Sally who disappeared last month? Maybe giant rats got her."

"The only giant rat around here is Terry McGinnis," Dana huffs, stabbing her fork into a cherry tomato in disdain.

"He blipped you off again?" Chels gasps.

"Big time."

"Dana!"

"And speak of the Devil," Xia says, leaning back to watch the scene unfold.

"Be advised. This story contains graphic images–"

"I've been looking all over for you," Terry claims, rushing over to their table.

"Look somewhere else. As far as you're concerned, I'm not here," Dana retorts, not looking at him.

Both Chelsea and Max 'ooh', giving each other a look.

"Listen, I'm sorry." He sits down between Dana and Xia. "Mr. Wayne needed me again last night. I don't blame you for being mad."

She quickly turns to him. "Mad?" She stands up. "Ter, I am way beyond mad. I've tried to be patient."

He stands up, placing his hands on her shoulders. "And you've been great. You've always been there for me."

She shoves his hands back to him. "So what do I get in return? Broken dates, broken promises. You care more about your dumb job than you do about me."

Chelsea, Max, and Xia watch on as if they're watching a drama movie, eating chips like popcorn.

"Dana, I have responsibilities now. My mom and brother depend on me. What do you want?"

"Someone who occasionally will be there for me. That's it, McGinnis we're through forever. I can't keep doing this. No more second chances," Dana huffs and stomps off to her car.

"Dana, wait," Terry calls out.

"Uh-uh. Girl time." Chels holds him back before going after Dana.

"Too bad you can't tell Dana what you've really been doing at night," Max speaks up.

Terry whips his head to her with wide eyes.

Xia looks over at her confused but chooses not to ask any questions. She doesn't much care what he does. "Well, I gotta go get a different book for a report, and this school doesn't have the book." Xia stands up. "I'm heading over to the library for a few hours." Xia heads to the parking lot and takes her motorcycle to the library.

"What was with that look?" Max asks. "I figured she would know about the whole Batman thing, considering her great grandpa was the original Batman. Along with the fact she could beat the shit out of you and probably take down most of your villains quicker than you even without a batsuit. Am I wrong? Was she not trained to be a bat?"

"Gee, thanks," Terry scoffs, taking Xia's seat. "No, she has no idea about the family business. They all want to keep it that way too. Her grandpa was the second Robin which is also the one that was killed and brought back to life with the Lazarus Pit. He's also Red Hood. Her dad is Red X. The Red Rogues. They've trained her since she could walk."

"Wow, holy crap. The Red Rogues. Why train her then?"

"Self defense. They live here, so why wouldn't they?"

"Got a point there."

"Xiara is smart, so try not to drop any hints about it. Bruce will kill me if she finds out."

"Alright, alright."

~~~

Xia is looking through the section of books for another book for the project. She's been here for hours, planning to finish this dumb project now and be done with it. The doors to the library are suddenly blown open, making everyone inside scream and rush out in any way they can.

"Blow it all up!"

Xia sighs, placing the book she was looking at back in place. "What fucking reason does some dumbass have to blow up a dumb library?" She slinks along the bookcases to peek at the loser causing panic. "Oh, it's that dumbass, should've known. Mad Stan... Ugh. Guess I'm not gonna be able to finish this project tonight."

Mad Stan begins placing bombs on every pillar in the library on each floor. Xia quietly goes behind him and dismantles each one without his notice.

"Blow it all up!" He finishes and gets down to the main level, pulling out the detonator button only for it to get cut by Batman's batarang.

Batman drifts down and shoves Stan down then gets on top to cuff his hands behind his back. "Keep it down, Stan. We're in a library."

"You think this is a joke? Look around, Batman. Society's crumbling, and do you know why?"

"Too many overdue books?"

"Information overload, man," Stan says, bringing his legs around Batman's neck and flicking him to the ground and holding him there. "As a society, we're drowning in a quagmire of vid clips, e-mail, and sound bites." He elbow drops on his back then brings Batman into a choke hold. "We can't absorb it all. There's only one sane solution." He sticks a bomb to Batman's face. "Blow it up!" He swings Batman around by his feet in a circle as Batman tries to pry the bomb off his face.

Batman gets it off his face as he's released and flings it away but still gets caught up in the blast, pushing him away.

They continue to fight after Stan pulls him through a bookcase into another.

Xia sighs as she watches things catch on fire. "You are doing a horrible job, Batman."

Stan lifts Batman by the head with one hand. "You're just contributing to the problem, man." He slams Batman into the wall. Batman falls to the ground in pain only for Stan to jump on top of him then stabs Batman's head into the ground which sticks him there by his ears. "Playing hero just for another blurb on the 11:00 news." Then he kicks him like a football across the room. He begins to rush in to beat Batman again.

Xia jumps down onto Stan's face, throwing him off balance and toppling to the floor. She begins to repeatedly pound his face in. "I. Was. Here. To. Finish. My. School. Project. And. You. Ruined. It!" Xia shouts, punching him after every word. "You're. So. Fucking. Stupid!" She slices the wire on the bomb strapped across his chest with her claws before backflipping off his chest to throw him back and get away.

He painfully and quickly throws the bomb off and gets caught in the blast, slamming hard into the wall and knocking himself out.

Batman gets himself off the floor and walks over to Xia. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Took care of him better and faster than you did," she scoffs. "You honestly suck at this. Do you even know how to fight?" She moves closer to him and gets close to his face. "You need training or you're gonna end up getting killed. Whoever it is that's talking to you through the mask, most likely the original Batman, needs to train you better. You suck."

"Thanks," he huffs sarcastically.

Bruce pipes up from the mask. "She's not wrong. Now, hurry and leave before she figures out who you are."

"Stay out of trouble, I don't wanna see you involved again," Batman tells Xia before blasting off.

"No promises, and who are you, my dad? Buzz off!" she shouts as he leaves. She huffs, looking around. "Well, guess I should head home."

...

All day Terry, Max, and Chelsea were worried for Dana. She apparently disappeared last night.

After school, Xia decides to conduct a search of her own. She doesn't exactly like Dana, but she can't help but try to help someone in need. Rhino's is where she was supposed to meet Terry for a final date. That's the first place she checks and right before she opens the door, she moves aside, hearing people stampede towards the exit. They all shout out about rats and health inspectors. She enters and finds giant rats storming the kitchen.

"I told you to stay out of trouble."

Xia turns to face Batman. "And I told you no promises."

He groans, putting a hand to his head. "Yeah, I know."

Xia figures he's not talking to her at that point and shoves him out of the way of being attacked by one of the giant rats. "Stop spacing out and pay attention!" She immediately kicks the giant rat coming at them aside with ease and swipes the other with her tails.

Batman takes on one of the rats while Xia takes on the other. Batman ends up getting trapped under one of the shelves as the two rats get away with a rat boy. Xia ends up moving to lift up the shelf off Batman.

"Hurry, we don't want to keep Dana waiting," the rat boy says, exiting out the back way.

"Dana?" Batman and Xia voice.

The two quickly follow behind him out into an alleyway to find him gone.

"Rats!" Batman huffs, punching the wall nearby.

"Chill, I have his scent," Xia says. "He went down into the sewers."

"You're not going," Batman says.

Xia smirks, already lifting the sewer cap. "I'd like to see you try and stop me."

Batman glares at her.

She smirks right back with a head tilt, gesturing to the sewer below.

"I don't have time for this," Batman says.

"No, you really don't," Xia replies, entering the sewer before he can stop her. "Come on, Batsy! Don't got all day. Dana is waiting!"

Batman disdainfully follows behind Xia as she leads him to this boy's home and Dana.

They arrive just in time and Batman kicks the ratboy away.

"Batman, how did you–"

"Never mind that. Stay behind us."

Xia moves next to him.

"Xiara?"

"I helped him track you," Xia says, pointing to her nose. "I have a good sense of smell now. It's strange though, I can't track Batman. He must have some kind of scent blocker."

Terry and Xia fight off the rats. Even Dana joins in with a hockey stick with a teddy bear on fire at the end to scare away the rats.

"Let's blow this mouse house," Batman says, scooping up Dana and running along a large pipe.

"This way," Xia says, leading him the quickest way out.

Dana drops the hockey stick flame into a giant thing of nuclear waste which causes a big chain reaction of fire to blow up all the way to the streets, blasting the sewer caps right off. They make it out in time. Dana passes out and Batman gently sets her down on a roof nearby.

"You should get home," Batman says.

"I know the cops don't much like you," Xia says, lifting up Dana. "You go. I'll stay here with Dana."

He gives a nod and heads off.

Xia watches him disappear and takes Dana down to street level once everything calmed down. Police, ambulance, and reporters quickly make their way over to the scene. Xia takes Dana to the ambulance to get her patched up and looked over.

"Are you alright?" the medic asks her.

"I'm fine," Xia says. "No pain for me."

"That's good. Your friend here got a few scrapes and bruises but no major damage. She'll heal and should wake up any second."

"Good."

After a while, she wakes up and sits on the back of the ambulance wrapped in a blue blanket. Xia sits beside her.

A reporter nearby is informing everyone on what's happened. "Amazingly, there were no reported fatalities. Authorities are still looking into the cause of the blast."

"Hey there."

The two girls look to the familiar voice.

"Terry?"

"Better late than never. If only I'd been there, I could've–"

"Shut up, McGinnis. Just shut up and take me home. I've had enough of all this."

He gives her a sad smile, knowing that she wasn't just talking about what she went through. "Come on. Let me take you two home."

~~~

After dropping Dana off at home and a fierce glare from her father, Terry and Xia are on the way to the manor.

"Do you have a thing for Batman or something?" Terry randomly asks.

"What?! Gross no! Why would you think that?"

"Well, you always seem to be around him lately. It's like you're seeking him out."

"Uh, no. I always seem to be in the place he's gonna be at. It's like I'm a trouble magnet."

"Well, you're not wrong there. You're definitely trouble wherever you go."

Xia rolls her eyes. "Whatever. I'm not the one who's been to juvie."

"I'm sure you would've if you didn't have rich parents to prevent that from happening."

"Don't."

"Why? You've been granted a silver spoon in the mouth. You have for more than 10 generations. Just stating the truth."

"I didn't choose to," Xia says.

"Must be nice to get whatever you want."

"Yeah, it is. Now, buzz off me."

"You're the one who started it. Don't give what you can't take."

"Look, I don't need your shit. Today has been exhausting and you're annoying as fuck," Xia scoffs, looking out the window. "I just wanna feed my snakes and pass out. Maybe a shower too, I can still smell sewer on me."

"Snakes? When did you get snakes?"

"When I got here. I got 3 of them. Spiny bush vipers."

"Are those venomous?"

"Very and there's no antidote for their poison either."

"Why?"

"Why not? I'm planning on getting some foxes and other creatures too."

"Yeah, the foxes will probably see you as their leader."

"Haha. You're so damn funny," she sarcastically says with an eyeroll. "...So, are you and Dana...?"

"Over? Yeah, we talked. She says she's fine with staying friends but can't deal with my absence. Why do you care?"

"No reason," she shrugs. "Just curious I guess. I don't want to deal with anymore problems. Nice to know I won't have to hear the either of you complain about the other now."

He pulls up to the manor and enters with Xia.

Bruce is waiting at the landing on the staircase. "You're late. Are the both of you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little Gotham craziness, GGB. I'm gonna shower and get to bed. Goodnight," she moves upstairs, giving him a cheek kiss as she passes.

"Goodnight, Xiara."

Ami floats around him for a few seconds before chasing after Xia. "Keeping secretsss..."

"I know they are, Ami," Xia replies as they get out of the two male's earshot. "And I know that you know the secret, but you know I like to try to figure things out on my own."

"You shouldn't be looking for the secret. It's been kept a secret to keep you safe."

"I know, Alfred," Xia sighs, turning to look at the old ghost. "Can you pick anything up yet?"

"I can shove things off but not pick up," Alfred reports. "It does seem like the longer you are nearby the stronger I get."

"Told you that's why Ami can do all the stuff she does."

"You were correct, Miss Xiara."

"Goodnight, triple great GP."

Alfred smiles. "Goodnight."

Xiara showers, feeds her vipers, and falls fast asleep after the eventful past two days she's had.