Little Grayson |Titans|

|Chapter LVII: Trackers|

| Train Tunnels,

Hours Later... |

"Don't forget. Keep your heads on a swivel, guys. Dr. Light could still be down here." Dick reminded them through the communicators in their ears and Liliana cursed loudly, which was echoing all throughout the tunnels now at the moment. "Liliana?" Dick asked and everyone was instantly on alert, not wanting to lose another younger member of the Titans.

"I got something. Blood on the ground, it looks like someone was dragged. I'll forward the coordinates, but I am completely alone. These are the same coordinates, that I saw when I last could read Jason's tracker without the interference." Liliana stated and when the others saw the coordinates appear, they started in her direction.

"At least Jason found Dr. Light. Maybe he would have told us all that, if we had given him and Liliana even half of a chance yesterday." Donna remarked as they walked forward together and they found Liliana studying the ground and the surrounding areas. "You find anything other than blood?" Donna questioned and Liliana was almost smiling a little faintly in the darkness.

"There was a fight, someone got thrown to the ground here," Liliana stood up and pointed her flashlight at the ground, where there was a crack in the ground. "It made a crack, which is clearly an indicator of a heavy person being thrown into the ground. Too heavy to be Jason, my guess is that Jason threw Dr. Light into the ground. Combined with the size of the indentation, the crack in the ground and the fact that the person seems to have continued fighting after the blow... my guess is Dr. Light tried to get free, but Jason wouldn't let him." Liliana murmured and she tilted her head to the side, as she moved her flashlight to rest on an indentation on the far side of the tunnel. "That is small enough to be Jason's head, since he wasn't wearing a helmet... but that couldn't have been Dr. Light, since he was still on the ground and pinned down, over here." She turned her flashlight back on the cracked ground.

"So, what do you think? What are you thinking happened here, since you seem to be right so far?" Donna questioned and as she prodded, Liliana's eyes were moving quickly around to look for clues. "You got something?"

"The person who cracked Jason's head into the wall, he could have crushed his skull outright with that blow. But he didn't, so he must want him alive. Jason was smacked into the wall from behind, judging by the angle of the crack. Then he was dragged, as Dick already pointed out. It means that the people were probably moving him." Liliana finished and Hank gave her a bump with his shoulder and she was grimly smiling a bit.

"He's alive. Dr. Light's using him as bait to draw and lure us out. If he was dead, you all know that he would have just left him here." Dick noted and Liliana looked up at her brother, as her fists were clenched tightly at her sides at the mention of Jason being used as bait.

"Back up. So the kid is nothing but bait to you now, is that it? Is that right?" Hank asked and Dick's eyes flicked to Liliana, who was breathing heavily and she was clenching her head and she could feel the panic coming on and she felt Dawn's arms around her, trying to help. "That is just rich, Dick. Real rich." Hank was saying darkly.

"You were baggin' on him just a minute ago, and now he's your best friend?" Dick growled in question and Liliana was beginning to tremble at the angry words and Donna's eyes flicked in between the two grown men that were arguing like two high schoolers over the same girl, then back to Liliana who was shuddering.

"Enough!" Liliana screamed and the two men looked shocked at her sudden volume and her vocal cords, they must have been shredded to make such a sound and she was shaking her head at them and the two women on either side were looking at her too. "When you two are done fighting like a pair of senior boys over who gets to take who to prom, come and find us." She said and the two looked at her, as she started walking away from the two.

They all joined up again when they found that Liliana's watch was glowing green and she led them confidently along the way. "How did you link it up with your watch?" Dick asked and she continued walking in an angry silence. "Look, I know that you're pissed-"

"You acted like he was dirt under your shoe, Dick. You talk about the new Titans being equal to one another, but then you leave us at home and people end up getting injured, every time. So, I think that you don't even care, so why would I tell you jack shit?" Dick flinched at the words and Liliana continued onward and she stopped, looking up at the body of Dr. Light and she crouched down in front of the dead body.

"What is that?" Dawn asked quietly and Liliana's hand was trembling, as she held the mini tracker in her hands, a small circle and she shut off the tracker on her watch and she shook her head.

"It is Jason's tracker." Liliana murmured softly and she shut her eyes briefly, as tears began to leak out of her eyes and Donna, Dawn and Hank all moved to give the young girl a hug. "Fuck's sake... how are we gonna find him?" She asked softly and they all looked at each other with pain in their gazes, until they heard a phone ring.

Dick picked up the phone that was tucked into the pocket of Dr. Light's pants and he waited for someone on the other end to speak. "I see that you all found my gift." Although Liliana did not by her own recollection know at all who the voice was, she could see by the reactions of the others that they knew exactly who it was and she put the pieces together.

"Deathstroke. Where's Jason?" Dick demanded to know at once and Liliana's blood ran cold and she was looking around at the group, shuddering at the thought and she dropped her head a bit, as she felt Hank's arm around her.

"Oh. Do you mean your little sidekick?" Deathstroke questioned and Liliana's eyes widened as she knew better than anyone, what Jason's reaction would be to that. Especially, since he was only to be referred to as "Bruce's sidekick" and even that was hardly a compliment.

"Who the fuck are you calling a sidekick, asshole?!" Liliana's eyes widened at the sound of Jason's voice and she was relieved that he was alive, which her face had written all over it and she was shaking with relief.

"Atta boy." Hank murmured.

Right up until she heard the sounds of brutal, hard and downright savage blows that were connecting with something and to try and avoid the sound, she desperately buried her face into Donna's side, and her hands clamped over her ears and she was whimpering into her side.

"You fuckin' bastard! Come and try that shit with me!" Hank demanded, practically shouting, as Donna moved her arms around Liliana, who was sobbing quietly and Donna murmured quietly into Liliana's ear and it was too quiet of a tone for the phone to pick up on whatever she was saying to the little Grayson.

"Just tell us what you want for him." Dick said and Liliana tried frantically to block out the choking sounds from the other end of the phone line and she shut her eyes tightly, while Donna and Dawn tried to keep her from screaming and hyperventilating, with not as much success as they would like to claim to have with it.

"As I was saying, if you want him back, hand over Rose." Liliana's eyes widened and Donna caught the look of indecision on Liliana's face, before her determination was back, and Liliana was looking at the phone in a swiftly darkening mood.

"And how do we know that you're gonna keep your promise, give us Jason back?" Dick asked and Liliana looked at Dick, before she heard sounds of gasping and coughing on the other end and Deathstroke had apparently let Jason go.

"Tonight, 3:00am. Embarcadero Plaza, outside. Use this phone to confirm." Deathstroke spoke evenly and Liliana looked at the older Titans as the line went dead and they all looked at each other, before looking at her in a devastating silence.