[Third Person Pov]
Speedy had a disgruntled expression as he and Kid Flash were moving from rooftop to rooftop, his boots striking gravel and concrete in quick succession while the cold night wind tugged at his hood and quiver. The city stretched endlessly around them, glowing with artificial light and restless movement, but none of it did anything to improve his mood.
Wally had a teasing expression all the way through as he said, "Haha, come on man, don't take it to heart. So what if you didn't find anything? We still have your contact within the hospital, don't we?"
"Are you trying to mock me or reassure me? I honestly can't tell with that stupid smile on your face," Roy scoffed, shooting him an annoyed glare over his shoulder while continuing forward without slowing down.
Wally's smirk never left his face as he shrugged casually, his hands resting behind his head even while running along the edge of a rooftop with inhuman balance. "Can't a brother do both?"
Roy clicked his tongue in irritation, but before he could reply, Wally's expression shifted. It wasn't dramatic or exaggerated, just subtle.
The teasing vanished, replaced by focus as his head turned sharply toward the hospital across the street. His enhanced perception caught it immediately.
The hospital rooftop.
Roy noticed the change instantly. "What?"
Wally didn't answer right away. His eyes narrowed slightly as he stared across the distance. Roy followed his gaze.
And then he saw her.
A woman stood at the very edge of the hospital rooftop, her thin hospital gown fluttering violently in the wind. Her bare feet were inches from the drop, toes curled slightly over empty air. Her body trembled, shoulders shaking, arms wrapped tightly around herself as if she was trying to hold herself together.
Roy's expression hardened instantly. "Damn it."
Wally was gone in the next fraction of a second. The world blurred as he launched himself forward, his body becoming a streak of red and yellow lightning as he crossed the distance between rooftops faster than the eye could follow. The air cracked faintly behind him from the sudden displacement.
He reached the hospital rooftop and slowed instantly, his shoes skidding softly against the concrete so he wouldn't startle her too much.
"Hey," Wally said gently, raising his hands slightly in a non-threatening gesture. His voice was calm, warm, careful. "You don't have to do this."
The woman froze.
Her head turned slowly toward him, revealing tear-streaked cheeks and wide, bloodshot eyes filled with despair so deep it made Wally's chest tighten.
"Stay back!" she screamed hysterically, her voice raw from crying.
Wally didn't move any closer. "Okay. Okay. I won't come closer. Just… let's talk, alright?"
Her breathing was uneven, panicked. "No… no, you don't understand… I can't… I can't do this anymore…"
"You don't have to be alone," Wally said softly.
She shook her head violently. "Stop! Stop lying! Everyone lies! Everyone says it gets better!"
Her foot shifted.
And then she jumped.
Wally's eyes widened. "No!"
He moved instantly. Time slowed to nothing for him as he lunged forward, reaching out and grabbing her arm midair just as gravity claimed her. Their momentum carried them off the rooftop together, her body dangling below him as he clung to her tightly.
"I've got you!" Wally said urgently.
But she didn't react the way he expected.
She screamed, "LET ME GO!"
Her hands clawed at him violently, nails digging into his arm as she twisted her body with frantic, desperate strength. She kicked, thrashed, and fought him with everything she had, pushing his face away.
Wally's grip faltered slightly, not from weakness, but from hesitation. He couldn't tighten his hold without hurting her.
"I'm trying to help you!" he said, panic creeping into his voice.
"I DON'T WANT HELP!" she screamed back hysterically. "I WANT TO DIE!"
Her violent struggling threw off his balance mid-fall. Even with his speed, he needed stable footing or leverage to safely redirect their momentum. Without it, gravity was winning.
They were falling.
Fast.
The ground rushed toward them.
And then—THWIP.
A grappling arrow slammed into the wall above them, the cable going taut instantly.
Roy swung in from the distance at high speed, his body arcing through the air as the cable pulled him forward like a pendulum.
"Kid Flash!" Roy shouted.
He didn't slow down and crashed directly into both of them.
The impact knocked the air out of Wally's lungs as Roy wrapped an arm around both him and the woman, his other hand gripping the cable tightly.
The sudden change in momentum sent all three of them hurtling sideways.
CRASH!
They slammed through a hospital window in an explosion of glass and debris, shards scattering across the floor as their combined weight sent them rolling violently across the polished tiles inside.
Roy hit the ground hard on his back, Wally tumbling beside him while still holding onto the woman.
She was screaming in pure despair. "LET ME GO!" she shrieked, sobbing violently as she thrashed against them. "WHY WON'T YOU LET ME DIE?!"
Her voice cracked, her entire body shaking uncontrollably, "I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE! I CAN'T! I CAN'T!"
Wally didn't let go.
Even as his arm stung from her scratching and his chest hurt from the impact, he held her firmly but gently, his voice soft despite his heavy breathing.
"You're not alone," he said quietly, "I got you"
She broke down completely, collapsing into uncontrollable sobs, her strength finally giving out as the weight of everything crushed her.
Roy exhaled sharply from where he lay on the floor, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before turning his head toward Wally.
"…I think we just found our first clue," Roy sighed.
…
"Holy shit… I think I just solved it," Danny muttered in surprise of his own capabilities, taking a couple steps back as if he needed physical distance from the board just to fully process what he was seeing. His eyes moved rapidly across the web of photos, notes, and red string, his mind racing faster than his voice could keep up. He studied every pinned photograph, every scribbled timestamp, every seemingly insignificant personal belonging that had been cataloged. For a moment he simply stared, his heart pounding, the realization settling deeper and deeper into his chest.
"Really?" Robin asked with a raised brow, his arms crossed as he leaned slightly forward. His tone was cautious but curious, his eyes fixed intently on Danny, watching for any sign that this was more than just excitement talking. He had seen plenty of false breakthroughs before, moments where patterns seemed real but fell apart under scrutiny.
"There is something that connects all the victims, but it was so natural and seemingly unrelated that we missed it," Danny said, his head and eyes moving rapidly across the board as he spoke, pointing vaguely at multiple areas without settling on just one. His fingers twitched slightly with nervous energy. "All the victims had a destination in mind before their depression began, or rather… they had a route. A consistent, repeated route."
Dinah Lance and Green Arrow were also giving Danny their undivided attention now. Dinah leaned forward slightly, her arms resting on the table as she watched him with sharp, analytical eyes, while Green Arrow stood upright beside her, his expression serious but open. Neither of them interrupted. They simply watched, letting him work through it.
"Okay, I might be reaching here a bit but the girl of the family I had visited, she had traveled from school to home," Danny said, gesturing toward the photo of the young girl pinned near the center of the board. His finger traced an invisible line between two pinned locations on the map behind it. He then turned toward Dinah. "The widow you visited, her husband traveled from work to home and vice versa. Every single day. Same path. Same routine."
"You're losing me here Danny," Robin said, shaking his head slightly as he uncrossed his arms. "Everyone travels from place to place. That's not exactly revolutionary."
"Ughh," Danny groaned softly, running both his hands over his face and gripping his hair briefly in frustration. He took a moment to steady himself, forcing his breathing to slow. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know I'm not making any sense. I'm just too excited here. This is my first great discovery. Let me take a deep breath."
He inhaled slowly through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, forcing his thoughts into order before continuing. When he spoke again, his voice was calmer, more deliberate.
"Pay attention to the distance of what I have to point out. The distance between the school and the home of the 6th victim. The distance between victim number seven's workplace and his home. The eighth victim's distance between practice and home… and so on and so on," Danny said as he pointed carefully to each marked location on the map, tracing the routes one by one. "Look at how great the distance between each one is. What does that tell you about all of our victims?"
"They're all pretty far from each other… almost across the city from each other," Dinah muttered, her eyes widening slightly as the implication began to form in her mind.
Danny immediately snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Exactly! None of them are within walking distance! None of them walked to their destinations!"
Robin's posture straightened slightly, his skepticism beginning to crack.
"The victim with the case of OCD," Danny continued, quickly moving over to another section of the board and pulling out the man's journal from the evidence pile. He flipped it open and held it up. "Look at his notes. Every morning to get to work he takes the bus. Every single entry is precise, timestamped. His most recent entry talked about renewing his bus card."
Danny then moved onto another victim, pointing to a photograph of a teenage boy. "This teen, his mom or dad normally drove him to school, but their car recently broke down. They were forced to take another mode of transportation. He couldn't rely on his usual ride anymore."
Danny's finger then moved rapidly across multiple pinned photos. "Here and here and here," he said, pointing toward the possessions Robin had photographed at each scene. "Take a look at the pictures Robin took of their belongings. They were so similar that we didn't immediately notice. Their keys. Their phones. Their bus passes. Transit cards. Transfer slips. None of us paid attention to it at first because they seemed unimportant. They were common. Everyday items you'd expect anyone to have."
He turned back toward them, his eyes burning with certainty now.
"All of this also supports the idea I shared earlier. The killer wasn't going to the victims," Danny said firmly. "The victims were going to the killer… or whatever this thing is. They encountered it during their route. During transit. During the time they were being carried somewhere else."
The room fell silent for a moment as the realization settled over all of them.
They were impressed. They began nodding slowly, their expressions shifting from uncertainty to clarity. Their eyes shone with the unmistakable spark of progress. For the first time since this investigation began, they didn't just have theories. They had direction. Almost immediately, they began scanning the board again with renewed focus, noticing details that had seemed meaningless before but now fit perfectly into place. Transfer times. Transit schedules. Geographic overlaps.
"Finding which bus they all took is going to be extremely tedious," Robin sighed, rubbing his eyes in annoyance as he stared at the overwhelming number of possible routes across the city.
"Wrong," Danny said with a small, confident grin.
Robin looked at him again, raising a brow. "You already know."
"One thing about people with OCD," Danny said as he lifted the journal again, carefully flipping to a specific page. "They're very precise with the things they document."
He pointed directly at a single line.
"7:35 am take Bus 32—"
The rest of the entry continued on with excessive detail, but none of it mattered anymore.
They had their answer.
They had their target.
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