-Dick's POV-

I rubbed my eyes and stood up, yawning. The haziness of a good night's sleep clouded my memory for a moment. Once I realized I had fallen asleep at the computer, everything from the night before came back to me.

All the fighting and screaming came rushing back. Victoria's voice screamed in my head as she tossed me across the floor. The image of my hands on her shoulders was enough to make me flinch. But, then the reason for fighting also arrived. And with that realization, I shoved the chair I had slept on away. It went sliding across the floor before flipping over and crashing against the cave wall. I was still a bit angry.

I ran my fingers through my stiff, sweaty hair. I knew a shower was in order and climbed the stairs back up to the mansion.

As the water rolled over me, I started to think. How could it have all gone down so quickly? I tried to piece together any behavior that made sense towards her confession. She had never mentioned her past that much, but when she did, her fake story always seemed so true. Athena Thomas sure was a good actress. She always did seem like she was hiding something, though. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. For the whole year I knew her, I would see glimpses of something behind her eyes when I talked about the circus. It made perfect sense that she told me she hated Haly's Circus.

I pictured the girl I knew. The Athena Thomas I had grown up with. They both had the same haunting blue eyes, the same dark hair. She had changed so much since I knew her. I guess that's why I never recognized her. Victoria Smith seemed to be a whole different person. Of course, while dating her, I did see small changes in Victoria's personality that seemed familiar. The way she talked about old books was one of the few cracks in Athena's cover. She practically lit up when discussing The Odyssey. While Victoria was usually so dark and tough, even she would sometimes smile and laugh. I guess that was the old Athena shining through.

But, she lied, I told myself, she betrayed you and showed she never truly cared.

I hopped out of the shower and changed into my Nightwing costume. I knew I didn't have work that day. Plus, the Team would need every senior member at such times.

I wandered towards Athena's room. My heart felt heavy as I looked inside. I suspected she would've left, but seeing it empty was enough to make me stop. She was gone. She left without saying anything. Pfft, classic assassin.

Before I could leave, I ran into Bruce and Tim. Bruce was ready for work and Tim was ready for school. They exchanged a look before talking.

"Dick, I-"

"Don't. I'm fine." I turned to leave, but Bruce's hand caught my arm. The action was familiar. I used to do it all the time to Nightingale.

"Dick, listen. With everything that's happened, it's important to keep an open mind."

I rolled my eyes. "Open mind? Open for what? To hear more bullsh-"

Tim came running downstairs back to the main room. I hadn't noticed he had left. He looked distressed. "She's gone!"

"Nightingale is gone? Do you know where she would go?" Bruce asked Tim, but turned to me for the answer.

"Why are you surprised? It's exactly what someone would do when their cover has been blown."

"Dick," Bruce looked a bit worried, "this is serious. We don't know her side of the story."

"We don't know her side because she wouldn't tell us."

"Dick."

"What? It's true! I asked her," I said, turning away from the two to look out the window into the garden. I hated myself for imagining myself chasing Athena through the towering shrubs.

"As far as we know, Athena Thomas could be out there right now killing for Ra's Al Ghul."

"You don't know if she's guilty!" Tim shouted, passion in his voice. I felt a twinge of annoyance at him for defending her.

"Let me finish. Or, she could be out there in danger. She is innocent until proven guilty. So, as of right now, Nightingale is missing. We all need to be looking for her." Even though my back was to Bruce, I could feel his gaze on me. I knew Victoria enough to know that if she doesn't want to be seen, you wouldn't see her.

-

The Team looked about exactly as what I expected it to. Some of the younger members were of course at school, but most of the senior members had shown up. Everyone was training, but no one seemed very focused. The tension in the room was thick. You could tell who had tried to defend Nightingale and who hadn't. Artemis was shooting arrows fast and with sharp movements at the targets. She got head shots almost every time. She always trained best when she was angry.

Wally, however, was obviously keeping his distance from her. He seemed angry too, but not like Artemis. I guessed they had had a fight. He was eating potato chips, biting into them hard. The more I looked around, the more angry the heroes seemed. One significant hero was missing, though. Aqualad was nowhere to be seen.

When everyone realised I had arrived, they stopped what they were doing. They passed sympathetic looks forward, looks I didn't want or ask for.

"Where's Kaldur?" I finally asked, breaking the silence I assumed had been there for hours.

"He said he needed to do further research on Nightingale to verify Donna's accusations," Zatanna answered.

"That's not what he said!" Donna shouted. The two friends shot each other death glares. So, Zatanna was an Athena Thomas supporter. "He said he needed to go to Atlantis to talk to Aquaman about the whole thing and to the Justice League about further membership."

"And to try and get information from Leaguers like Cyborg about verification on the information," Superboy hissed. They two didn't like each other before everything happened, so I assumed they would probably kill each other given the chance.

"Well, with him gone, we need a leader," I looked around at everybody. They seemed to be standing very far from each other. There were some members -- like Miss Martian and Bumble Bee -- who just looked sad and confused on the whole situation. Despite that, Superboy still stood on the other side of the training room from M'gann.

"You are the leader now, Dick. You are the only one experienced enough," Donna said sweetly, flashing a smile. Even though she had revealed the truth about my girlfriend, I still couldn't bring myself to like her. Her persistent flirting was very obvious now that Victoria wasn't here. I realized I had never noticed, but now Donna's attraction to me was very clear. It made me uncomfortable and a bit mad.

"Okay then, time for mission assignment."

-

After all missions were taken care of, everyone left the Watchtower to get something to eat and do their own thing. I didn't leave though. Despite my rage, I found myself looking up information and legends from Asia about Nightingale. They all described her like Donna had stated they did; dangerous, graceful, and scary. Some people in India had even described her as a demon, not a person.

I heard footsteps behind me and snapped around to glance behind. Donna came into the researching room, sitting beside me. I forced a smile. She smiled back, her lips curving down to pout a bit.

"I'm sorry about the whole Athena Thomas thing," she said. I could hear the fakeness in her voice, but chose to ignore it.

"It's alright."

"I was just trying to do the right thing. Don't you think it was the right thing?"

I half shrugged, half nodded. "Yeah."

"Good," she smiled again, flashing perfect, white teeth, "you know, I will always look out for you. I knew since the moment I met her that she was poisonous." I mentally rolled my eyes. Donna never liked Athena, but it wasn't because she knew she was lying the whole time.

I snapped myself out of my thoughts. I was defending Athena again. It must've been an instinct, but it wasn't my job anymore. I shook the feeling of betrayal off and nodded a half-hearted agreement.

"I know, Donna."

She scooted her chair a bit closer. I felt my heart jump to my throat, but swallowed it back down. A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead, but I quickly swiped it away.

"So, what are you doing? Watching something?" Her hands danced across my keyboard. The only way I could stop her from finding I was really looking up Nightingale, was to stop her hands. I grabbed them in mine and led them slowly away from the monitor. She smirked and scooted closer.

"Here, I can pull up live footage from the Rogues. They're getting pretty high," I clicked on to a football game of Gotham vs Denver. Donna eyed me skeptically, but leaned back in her chair, satisfied to watch her favorite sport event.

"I think they might have a chance at the Super Bowl. They have an amazing defense, but their offense could be better." Donna had her chair right up against mine, so when she leaned back, her thigh rubbed against my forearm.

As the game bore on, I let the guilty feeling in my gut melt away. I had to reassure myself that I wasn't with Athena and I didn't care about her. If she didn't care, I didn't care. I had to tell myself Donna was just here as a friend. Friends sat this close together all the time.

After Gotham got victory, we both bolted from our chairs. We screamed and cheered for their victory. It was around seven, and we were both still at the Watchtower. I knew I needed to leave soon for patrol.

"How great was that game?" I high fived Donna, smiling.

"Oh my god, amazing!" She was practically pressing against my arm. I moved my arm out to the side and she fell onto my chest. "It is really great to hang out with you," her voice was low as she looked up at me. Her eyes had fallen to my mouth. Before I could do anything, her red lips had crashed down on mine.

At first, I let it happen. I pretended that I actually might like Donna and maybe the reason I hadn't liked her was because Nightingale hated her. But, the more I kissed her, the more I realized I was lying to myself. It felt guilty and wrong to be kissing her, even if I was angry at Athena for lying. Kissing her enemy was a little too far. I pulled back, wiped my mouth on my sleeve, and gently pushed her away from me. She looked like she was either going to cry or punch me in the face.

I heard a sound of quiet, rushed footsteps. But, just as quickly as hearing them, they were gone. I turned to the doorway but no one was there. Donna's eyebrows knitted together as her eyes got watery. She took a deep breath and dashed out of the research room.

I leaned against the computer, sighing to myself. I guess I'm just not that good with girls...

-

Patrol took my mind off of everything with Donna. The familiar swinging and flying sensation cleared my head and the distraction of beating up criminals kept me occupied. The problem with patrol was it brought back fresh memories of Nightingale. Unless she was busy with a personal mission, we would always go on patrol together.

I rested up on Old Wayne Tower, glancing down at the bright city that was Gotham. I took deep breaths of the night air. A clear mind was the most vital thing I needed. Every once in awhile, Athena's smile would flash behind my closed eyelids or I'd see her eyes in the lights below.

The truth was that I had had strong feelings for Victoria Smith. I did. But when she told me that Victoria hadn't even really existed, I felt heartbroken. It was even worse when I thought about what Athena was doing. She turned her back on everyone so quickly. She hadn't even tried to make things better between us. She just left.

And here I am, sitting here feeling bad for letting her go. I scoffed, looking out towards the ocean instead of the city. It was so dark, with only the moon reflecting on it. Now that was something I could clear my mind to. The darkness and calmness of the tides did wonders for drawing away negative thoughts.

She's probably gone back to the League of Assassins to report her failure. She'll probably be assigned a new mission, a new superhero to manipulate. I chuckled quietly to myself. Poor guy.

I stood up and jumped down from the gargoyle I was perched on. The wind whipped in my face, making my face feel like it was frozen. My anger had fizzled out, leaving only sadness. For a moment, I didn't grapple to another building. I closed my eyes and let myself fall. But, before I could do something I would regret, I shot out a line. It snagged and dragged me very harshly, tearing my arm almost out of the socket. It was as if it was punishing me for trying to hit such a low point.

A tiny wave of confidence rolled over me as I went flying through the air. I knew just what I needed to do to cheer myself up. There was always one thing that made me happier than ever.

I said hello to Tim as I swung past him. He saw the lightness in my face and waved back.

I managed to get to the circus tent right after they had finished a show. Raya and Mr. Haly were the first ones to greet me. They patted my back and led me up to the acrobatics ladder. As I climbed it, I felt more and more confidence coming my way. I buried down my feelings of betrayal and let myself go. Raya and I swung back in forth, trying to outmaneuver each other. I lost myself in the old swing of things.

~~~~~~Finally! New chapter! Sorry that it is a bit short, but I actually started writing it today and finished writing it today, which usually never happens. Anyway, today was a pretty great day. DID YOU GUYS SEE THE JUSTICE LEAGUE TRAILER!? AND HOW ABOUT THE WONDER WOMAN TRAILER!? THEY ARE LOOKING LIKE PRETTY KICK ASS MOVIES!!!! So, yeah, I'm pretty hyped for the movies. How about you guys? I can't wait for Suicide Squad and honestly, I think Joker is looking pretty damn good. Did you see the new Joker trailer too? Because when him and Harley kiss, I always find myself screaming XD You guys, I am so excited for the future of the DC cinematic universe. So, I realize that I probably won't be able to actually start the second book of this series by the end of summer, but my goal is to finish this book by the end. So, make sure you guys yell at me! Anyway, don't forget to vote, comment, and follow if you aren't already.~~~~~~~